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ENGLISH CLASSIC SERIES. 
 
 AN ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 
 BY 
 
 Alexander Pope. 
 
 Biographical and Explanatory Notes, including 
 Clarke’s Grammatical Notes. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 Maynard, Merrill, & Co,, 
 
 29 , 31 , AND 33 East Nineteenth Street. 
 
ALEXANDER POPE 
 
ALEXANDER POPE. 
 
 This eminent English poet was born in London. May 2i, 1688. 
 His parents were Roman Catholics, and to this faith the poet 
 adhered, thus debarring himself from public office and employ, 
 ment. His father, a linen-merchant, having saved a moderate 
 competency, withdrew from business, and settled on a small estate 
 he had purchased in Windsor Forest. He died at Chiswick, in 
 1717. His son shortly afterwards took a long lease of a house and 
 five acres of land at Twickenham, on the banks of the Thames, 
 whhher he retired with his widowed mother, to whom he was ten- 
 derly attached, and where he resided till death, cultivating his little 
 domain with exquisite taste and skill, and embellishing it with a 
 grotto, lemple, wilderness, and other adjuncts poetical and pictur- 
 esque. In this famous villa Pope was visited by the most celebrated 
 wits, statesmen, and beauties of the day, himself being the most 
 popular and successful poet of his age. His early years were spent 
 at Binfield, within the range of the Royal Forest. He received 
 some education at little Catholic schools, but was his own instruc- 
 tor after his twelfth year. He never was a profound or accurate 
 scholar, but he read Latin poets with ease and delight, and acquired 
 some Greek, French, and Italian. He was a poet almost from in- 
 fancy ; he “lisped in numbers,” and when a mere youth surpassed 
 all his contemporaries in metrical harmony and correctness. His 
 pastorals and some translations appeared in 1709 ; but were writ- 
 ten three or four years earlier. These were followed by the Essay 
 on Criticism, 1711 ; Rape of the Lock (when completed, the most 
 graceful, airy, and imaginative of his works), 1 712-17 14 ; Windsor 
 Forest, 1713 ; Temple of Fame, 1715. In a collection of his works 
 printed in 1717 he included the Epistle of Eloisa and Elegy on an 
 Unfortunate Lady, two poems inimitable for pathetic beauty and 
 finished melodious versification. 
 
4 
 
 Alexander Pope. 
 
 From 1715 till 1726 Pope was chiefly engaged on his transla- 
 tions of the Iliad and Odyssey y which, though wanting in true Ho- 
 meric simplicity, naturalness, and grandeur, are splendid poems. 
 In 1728-29 he published his greatest satire — the Dunciady an at* 
 tack on all poetasters and pretended wits, and or all other persons 
 against whom the sensitive poet had conceived any enmity. In 
 1737 he gave to the world a volume of his Literary Correspondence y 
 containing some pleasant gossip and observations, with choice 
 passages of description ; but it appears that the correspondence 
 was manufactured for publication not composed of actual letters 
 addressed to the parties whose names are given, and the collec- 
 tion was introduced to the public by means of an elaborate strata- 
 gem on the part of the scheming poet. Between the years 1731 
 and 1 739 he issued a series of poetical essays, moral and philosoph- 
 ical, with satires and imitations of Horace, all admirable for 
 sense, wit, spirit, and brilliancy. Of these delightful productions, 
 the most celebrated is the Essay on Many to which Bolingbroke is 
 believed to have contributed the spurious philosophy and false sen- 
 timent ; but its merit consists in detached passages, descriptions, 
 and pictures. A fourth book to the Diinciady containing many 
 beautiful and striking lines, and a general revision of his works, 
 closed the poet’s literary cares and toils. He died on the 30th 
 of May, 1744, and was buried in the church at Twickenham. 
 
 Pope was of very diminutive stature, and deformed from his birth. 
 H is physical infirmity, susceptible temperament, and incessant 
 study rendered his life '‘one long disease.” He was, as his friend 
 Lord Chesterfield said, “ die most irrita bl^-of alljth e genus irri tabile 
 vatuniy offended with trifles, and never forgetting or forgiving 
 them.” His literary stratagems, disguises, assertions, '"flenials, 
 and (we must add) misrepresentations would fill volumes. Yet 
 when no disturbing jealousy, vanity, or rivalry intervened, was 
 generous and affectionate, and he had a manly, independent spirit. 
 As a poet he was deficient in originality and creative power, and 
 thus was inferior to his prototype, Dryden ; but as a literary artist, 
 and brilliant declaimer, satirist, and moralizer in verse, he is stiif 
 unrivaled. He is the English Horace, and will as surely descend 
 with honors to the latest posterity. 
 
CRITICAL INTRODUCTION, 
 
 The question whether Pope was a poet has hardly yet been 
 settled, and is hardly worth settling; for if he was not a great 
 poet he must have been a great prose writer — that is, he was a 
 great writer of some sort. He was a man of exquisite faculties 
 and of the most refined taste; and as he chose verse (the most ob- 
 vious distinction of poetry) as the vehicle to express his ideas, he 
 has generally passed for a poet, and a good one. If, indeed, by a 
 great poet we mean one who gives the utmost grandeur to our 
 conceptions of nature, or the utmost force to the passions of the 
 heart. Pope was not, in this sense, a great poet; for the best, the 
 characteristic power of his mind lay the clean conTraxyT^^ — 
 namely, in presenting things as they appear to the indifferent ob- 
 server ,~^tfipped of "prejudice and passion. * * * 
 
 He wa ^ not , then, distinguished as a poet of lofj^ enthusiasm 
 of strong imagination, with a passionate sense of the beauties of 
 nature, or a deep insight into the workings of the heart; but he 
 was a wit, a critic, and a man of sense, of observation, and of the 
 world; with a keen relish for the elegancies of art, or of nature 
 when embellished by art; a quick tact for propriety of thought 
 and manners, as established by the forms and customs of society; 
 refined sympathy with the sentiments and habitudes of human 
 life as he felt them within the little circle of his family and 
 friends. 
 
 Pope saw nature only dressed by art; he judged of beauty by 
 fashion; he sought for truth in the opinions of the world; he 
 judged of the feelings of others by his own. — Thomas De Qctin- 
 
 CEY. 
 
 Pope is not only the foremost literary figure of his age, but the 
 representative man of a system or style of writing which for a 
 hundred years before and after him pervaded English poetry. 
 
6 
 
 CRITICAL INTRODIJCTION. 
 
 The writers in this style are sometimes spoken of as the school 
 of Pope/' But the title is a misnomer. A school coexists along 
 with other schools from v/hich it is distinguished by some special 
 characteristics; all the contemporaneous schools taken together 
 bearing the common and more general stamp of their age. 
 
 During the period which extends, speaking roughly, from the 
 Eestoration to the French Kevolution, the whole of English liter- 
 ary effort, but especially poetical effort, has one aim and is 
 governed by one principle. This is the desire to attain perfection 
 of form; a sense of the beauty of literary composition as such. 
 It was the rise within the vernacular language of that idea w^hich, 
 impregnating the Latin language as written and spoken in the 
 fifteenth century, had produced the revived, neolatin literature of 
 the Renaissance. Pope himself (Sat. and Ep. 5), in describing 
 this “ Manner," spoke of it as French, and attributed it to tne imi- 
 tation of French fashions introduced into England at the Restora- 
 tion. 
 
 “ We conquer’d France, but felt our captive’s cnarms: 
 
 Her arts victorious triumph’d o’er our aruiri; 
 
 Britain to soft refinements less a foe, 
 
 Wit grew polite, and numbers learn’ d to flow.” 
 
 A better denomination for the period of our literature which 
 extends from the Restoration to the French Revolution is “ the 
 classical period." And this is not to be taken to mean that Eng- 
 lish writers now imitated the Greek and Latin writers, or con 
 sciously formed themselves upon classical models, as the Latinists 
 of the Renaissance imitated Cicero and Virgil. English writers 
 had begun to perceive that there was such an art as the art of 
 writing; that it was not enough to put down words upon paper 
 anyhow, provided they conveyed j^our meaning. They found 
 that sounds were capable of modulation, and that pleasure could 
 be given by the arrangement of words, as well as instruction con- 
 veyed by their import. The public ear was touched by this new 
 harmony, and began imperatively to demand its satisfaction; and 
 from that moment the rude volubility of the older time seemed to 
 it as the gabble of savages. poem was no longer to be a story 
 told with picturesque imagery, but was to be a composition in. 
 symmetry and keeping^ A thought or a feeling was not' to be 
 blurted out in the first words that came, but was to be matured by 
 reflection and reduced to its simplest expression. Condensation, 
 
CEITICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 7 
 
 terseness, neatness, finish — all qualities hitherto unheard of in 
 English — had to be studied. It was found to be possible to please 
 by your manner as wxll as by your matter. And having been 
 shown to be possible, it became necessary. * * * 
 
 Pope at once took the lead in the race of writers because he took 
 more pains than they. He labored day and night to form him- 
 self for his purpose, that of becoming a writer of finished verse. 
 
 To improve his mind, to enlarge his view of the world, to store 
 up knowledge — these were things unknown to him. Any ideas, 
 any thoughts, such as custom, chance, society, or sect may suggest, 
 are good enough, but each idea must be turned over till it has 
 been reduced to its neatest and most epigrammatic expression. 
 
 Pope, wherever he recedes from what was immediately close to 
 him, the manners, passions, prejudices, sentiments, of his own 
 day, has only such merit — little enough — which wit divorced 
 from truth can have. He is at his best only where the delicacies 
 and subtle felicities of his diction are employed to embody some 
 transient phase of feeling. * * * 
 
 The ;^s^ax qn Man is a didactic or argumentative poem, not on 
 man, as the title bears, but a theodicce or vindication of the ways 
 of "Providence. The view attempted to be presented is that of 
 Leibnitzian optimism; the end of the universe is the general good 
 of the whole; it was impossible to realize this 'without admitting 
 partial evil. Man is not the end of creation, but only one in a 
 graduated scale of beings; it is his pride which leads him to com- 
 plain when he finds that everything has not been ordered for his 
 benefit. The reasoning of the Essay on Man is feeble, the phi- 
 losophy either trite or inconsistent, or obscure. But the less the 
 intrinsic value of the argument, the more is our admiration ex- 
 cited by the literary skill and brilliant execution displayed in the 
 management. The particular illustrations, the episodes and side- 
 lights, always sparkle with wit, and are sometimes warm with 
 feeling, when the main thesis is jejune and frigid. — Bev. Mark 
 Pattison in Ward’s ^"English Poets.’* 
 

THE DESIGN, 
 
 Prefixed in 1735, when Pope inserted the Essay on Man in his worTcs. 
 
 Having proposed to write some pieces on human life and man- 
 i ners, such as, to use my Lord Bacon’s expression, come home to 
 men’s business and bosoms, I thought it more satisfactory to 
 begin with considering man in the abstract, his nature and his 
 state; since to prove any moral duty, to enforce any moral pre- 
 cept, or to examine the perfection or imperfection of any creature 
 whatsoever, it is necessary first to^knpw_what condition and rela- 
 tion it is placed in, and what is the proper end and purpose of its 
 being. 
 
 ^ The science of human nature is, like all other sciences, reduced 
 to a few clear points. There are not many certain truths in this 
 world. It is therefore in the anatomy of the mind as in that of 
 the body, more good will accrue to mankind by attending to the 
 large, open, and perceptible parts, than by studying too much 
 such finer nerves and vessels, the conformations and uses of which 
 will for ever escape our observation. The disputes are all upon 
 these last, and, I will venture to say, they have less sharpened the 
 wits than the hearts of men against each other, and have dimin- 
 vished the practice more than advanced the theory of morality. 
 ^ If I could fiatter myself that this essay has any merit, it is in 
 steering betwixt the extremes of doctrines seemingly opposite, in 
 passing over terms utterly unintelligible, and in forming a tem- 
 perate, yet not inconsistent, and a short, yet not imperfect, system 
 of ethics. 
 
 This I might have done in prose; but I chose verse, and even 
 rhyme, for two reasons. The one will appear obvious; that prin- 
 ciples, maxims, or precepts so written, both strike the reader more 
 j strongly at first, and are more easily retained by him afterwards. 
 The other may seem odd, but is true. I found I could express 
 them more shortly this way than in prose itself; and nothing is 
 
10 
 
 THE DESIGN. 
 
 more certain, than that much of the force as well as grace of 
 arguments or instructions depends on their conciseness. I was 
 unable to treat this part of my subject more in detail, without 
 becoming dry and tedious; or more poetically, without sacrificing 
 perspicuity to ornament, without wandering from the precision, 
 or breaking the chain of reasoning. If any man can unite all 
 these, without diminution of any of them, I freely confess he will 
 compass a thing above my capacity. _ | 
 
 What is nx)w published is only to be considered as a genera.^ 
 map of man, marking out no more than the greater parts, their 
 extent, their limits, and their connection, but leaving the particu- 
 lar to be more fully delineated in the charts which are to follow. 
 Consequently, these Epistles, in their progress (if I have health 
 and leisure to make any progress) will be less dry, and more sus- 
 ceptible of poetical ornament. I am here only opening the foun- 
 tains, and clearing the passage. To deduce the rivers, to follow 
 them in their course, and to observe their effects, may be a task 
 more agreeable. 
 
An Essay on Man, 
 
 IN FOUR EPISTLES 
 TO 
 
 HENRY ST. JOHN, LORD BOLINGBROKE. 
 
 Written in the Tear 1732 . 
 
 Argument op Epistle I. 
 
 OF MAN IN THE ABSTRACT. 
 
 I. That we can judge only with regard to our own system, being ignorant 
 of the relations of systems and things, verse 17, etc. II. That man is not to 
 be deemed imperfect, but a being suited to his place and rank in the creation, 
 "a^eeable to the general order of things, and conformable to ends and rela- 
 tions to him unknown, verse 35, etc. III. That it is partly upon his igno- 
 rance of future events, and partly upon the hope of a future state, that all 
 his happiness in the present depends, verse 77, etc. IV. The pride of aim- 
 ing at more knowledge, and pretending to more perfection, the cause of 
 man’s error and misery. The impiety of putting himself in the place of 
 God, and judging the fitness or unfitness, perfection or imperfection, justice 
 or injustice of His dispensations, verse 113, etc. V. The absurdity of con- 
 ceiting himself the final cause of the creation, or expecting that perfection 
 in the moral world which is not in the natural, verse 131, etc. VI. The im- 
 reasonableness of his complaints against Providence, while on the one hand 
 he demands the perfections of the angels, and on the other the bodily qualifi- 
 cations of the brutes ; though, to possess any of the sensitive faculties in a 
 higher degree would render him miserable, verse 173, etc. VII. That 
 throughout the whole visible world, a universal order and gradation in the 
 sensual and mental faculties is observed, which causes a subordination of 
 creature to creature, and of all creatures to man. The gradations of sense, 
 instinct, thought, reflection, reason; that reason alone countervails all the 
 other faculties, verse 207, etc. VIII. How much farther this order and sub- 
 ordination of living creatures may extend, above and below us; were any 
 part of which broken, not that part only, but the whole connected creation, 
 .must be destroyed, verse 233, etc. IX. The extravagance, madness, and 
 pride of such a desire, verse 259, etc. X. The consequence of aU, the abso- 
 lute submission due to Providence, both as to our present and future state, 
 verse 281, etc., to the end. 
 
12 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN, 
 
 Epistle I. 
 
 Awake, my St. John ! leave all meaner things 
 To low ambition and the pride of kings, 
 luet us, since life can little more supply 
 Than just to look about us and to die, 
 
 Expatiate free o’er all this scene of man; | 
 
 - A mighty maze ! but not without a plan; | 
 
 A. wild, where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot; • I 
 Or garden tempting with forbidden fruit. » \ 
 
 Together let us beat this ample fleld, ♦ \ 
 
 what the open, what the covert yield; lo 
 
 The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore. 
 
 Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar; 
 
 I. St. John.— Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, was a Secretary of 
 5tate in the reign of Queen Anne. On the accession o’: George I. he ficd to 
 France, to avoid a threatened impeachment. Being pardoned in 1723, he re- 
 turned to England, where he enjoyed the society of Pope, Swift, and otl tf 
 of his old friends. In 173.5 he again retired to France for seven years. The. 
 matter of Bolingbroke’s works is of little value, owing to the unsoundness' 
 of his principles both in religion and in philosophy, but his style is singularly' 
 eloquent and highly polished. 
 
 4. Than and as are sometimes followed by verbs in the infinitive mode, 
 which are used in a potential sense: thus since life can little more supply,', 
 than that we may look, etc. Sometimes, also, a verb in the infinitive mode^ 
 stands as the object, on which an action terminates, like a noun in the obi 
 jective case; so, fo look, may be connected with the substantive phrase. Utile 
 more, by the conjunction than. 
 
 5. This exordium relates to the whole work, first in general, then in parti' 
 ular. The 6th, 7th, and 8th lines allude to the subjects of this book,— th( 
 general order and design of Providence; the constitution of the human' 
 mind, whose passions cultivated are virtues, neglected vices; the tempUi- 
 tions of misapplied self-love, and wrong pursuits of power, pleasure, and 
 false happiness.— Pope. 
 
 In the foregoing note the expression “this book” means the four pubA 
 lished epistles of the Essay, which were intended to form the first book of 
 “ the whole work,” which was not completed. U 
 
 sj 6. The 6th verse alludes to the subject of this first Epistle,— the state o^ 
 man here and hereafter, disposed by Providence, though to him unknown. 
 Pope. 
 
 7. Alludes to the subject of the second Epistle,— the passions, their good oj 
 evil.— Pope. 
 
 8. Alludes to the subject of the fourth Epistle, — of man’s various pursuits? 
 
 of happiness or pleasure. — Pope. ] 
 
 10. The 10th, 13th, and 14th verses allude to the subject of the second Epis*\] 
 tie of the second book,— the characters of men and manners. — Pope. 
 
 Open and covert are adjectives supplying the place of their nouns (perhaps 
 parts) understood; a usage common iii poetry. I 
 
 Pope’s four Moral Essays were a portion of the proposed second book. ( 
 
 II. The 11th and 12th verses allude to the subject of the first Epistle of the) 
 second book— the limits of reason, learning, and ignorance.— Pope. 
 
 This Epistle was not written. 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 13 
 
 I Eye JSTature’s walks, shoot Folly as it flies, \ 
 
 And catch the manners li\dng as they rise"^ 
 i' Laugh where we must, be candid where we can; 15 
 
 vin dicate the ways of God to man.^ 
 
 I. Say first, oTGbdrab'CT^^e'i^T'mah bc^^^ 
 
 I What can we reason but from what we know ? 
 
 ; Of man, what see w^e but his station here. 
 
 From which to reason, or to which refer ? 20 
 
 I Through worlds unnumbered though tft God be known, 
 
 ’Tis ours to trace Him only in our own. 
 
 He, who through vast immensity can pierce, 
 
 : See worlds on worlds compose one universe, 
 
 . Observe how system into system runs, 25 
 
 I What other planets circle other suns, 
 
 I What varied being peoples every star, 
 
 ■ May tell vrhy Heaven has made us as we are. 
 f But of this frame, the bearings and the ties, 
 
 [ The strong connections, nice dependencies, 30 
 
 I Gradations just, has thy pervading soul 
 ! Looked through, or can a part contain the whole ? 
 
 I Is the great chain that draws all to agree, 
 
 : And drawn supports, upheld by God or thee ? 
 
 : II. Presumptuous man ! the reason wouldst thou find, 35 
 
 I Why formed so weak, so little, and so blind ? 
 
 I 15. Candid. — Lenient and favorable in judgment. 
 
 ^ 16. Alludes to the subject which runs through the whole design— the jus- 
 tification of the methods of Providence. — Pope. 
 
 “ And justify the ways of God to man.” — Milton, Par. Lost, i. 26. 
 
 18. From what can we reason, etc. 
 
 21. Though the God be known through worlds, etc. A preposition always 
 shows relation between the word which it governs and some other — a verb, 
 houn, or an adjective. 
 
 i 28-28. He, who can pierce, see, and observe, may tell, etc. When a nomi- 
 native case is immediately followed by a relative, you must look for its verb 
 beyond the relative sentence and its connections. ' 
 
 29-32. Has thy pervading soul looked through the bearings, ties, etc., of this 
 frame? 
 
 !' 29. This frame.— The universe as an arranged system. 
 
 33. The great chain. — An allusion to the golden chain of Homer, which 
 he poet represents as sustained by Jove, with the whole creation appended 
 .0 it 
 
14 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess, 
 
 Why formed no weaker, blinder, and no less ? 
 
 Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made 
 Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade ! 
 
 Or ask of yonder argent fields above 
 Why Jove’s satellites are less than Jove ! 
 
 Of systems possible, if ’tis confessed 
 That wisdom infinite must form the best. 
 
 Where all must full or not coherent be. 
 
 And all that rises rise in due degree. 
 
 Then, in the scale of reasoning life, ’tis plain 
 There must be somewhere such a rank as man: 
 
 And all the question (wrangle e’er so long) 
 
 / Is only this, if God has placed him wrong. 
 
 Kespecting man, whatever wrong we call. 
 
 May, must be right, as relative to all. 
 
 In human works, though labored on with pain, 
 
 A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain; 
 
 In God’s, one single can its end produce; 
 
 Yet serves to second too some other use. 
 
 So man, who here seems principal alone. 
 
 Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown. 
 
 Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal; 
 
 ’Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. 
 
 When the proud steed shall know why man restrains 
 
 40; 
 
 
 
 % 
 
 37. If thou canst guess, then guess the harder reason. Guess in the end o 
 the iine is in the imperative mode. 
 
 40. Then the weeds, which they shade, are made. 
 
 42 Why Jupiter’s moons or satellites, are less than the planet itseli. 
 
 Satellites In four syllables, the pronunciation of the time. 
 
 43. If ’tis contest, that infinite Wisdom must form the best of possibl- 
 systems, 
 
 43. 
 
 45. Where all must fall, or not be coherent. • xv, u 
 
 49. Wrangle may be. by hypothesis, put in the imperative or in the sub 
 iective mode — if we or you wrangle. 
 
 50. The phrase, if God has placed him tvrong, is m apposition with quei 
 
 ^ 51. Respecting, by some, is called a preposition and it may be a part.-j 
 That, respecting man, which we call wrong. j 
 
 55. Single.— That is, single movement. 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 15 
 
 His fiery course, or drives him o’er the plains; 
 
 When the dull ox, why now he breaks the clod. 
 
 Is now a victim, and now Egypt’s god; 
 
 Then shall man’s pride and dullness comprehend 65 
 
 His actions’, passions’, being’s, use and end 
 Why doing, suff’ring, checked, impelled; and why 
 This hour a slave, the next a deity. 
 
 Then say not man’s imperfect, Heaven in fault; 
 
 Say rather man’s as perfect as he ought: 70 
 
 His knowledge measured to his state and place. 
 
 His time a moment, and a point his space. 
 
 If to be perfect in a certain sphere. 
 
 What matter, soon or late, or here or there ? 
 
 The blest to-day is as completely so, 75 
 
 As who began a thousand years ago. 
 
 . III. Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate. 
 
 All biit the page prescribed, their present state; 
 
 From brutes what men, from men what spirits know; 
 
 Or wlia could suffer being here below ? 80 
 
 The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, 
 
 Had he thy reasmi, would he skip and play ? 
 
 Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food, 
 
 And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood. 
 
 . 63. Oxen- were offered in sacrifice by most of the ancients, as well as by 
 he Jews. With the Egyptians, the species ox was sacred, and an object 
 )f worship. When their god. the bull Apis, died, in the reign of Ptolemy 
 ^g-ns, the expenses of his funeral pomp exr*eeded 50,000 French crowns. 
 
 I 64 Egypt’s god.— Apis, the bull kept at Memphis, and worshiped by the 
 [ilgyptians. 
 
 j 70. As lie ought. —That is. as he ought to be. 
 
 ! 75. Blest, a participle used for its substantive, or, the man who is (or who 
 ^gan to be) blest to-day, etc. 
 
 76. Years— Nouns of time and distance, and manner, ivith the noun, home, 
 ;re put ill the objective case, without anj^ word expressed to govern them 
 -a preposition being understood. 
 
 80. See this pursued in Epistle III., verse 66, etc,, verse 79, etc. — Pope. 
 
 ! Being is a noun — Who could suffer (i.e., bear the burden of) existence here 
 lelow 
 
 81. Riot. — Luxury, excess. 
 
 , If the Jamb, which thy riot dooms, etc. (if he) had thy reason, would he 
 kip and play? He is only a repetition of the subject, and in apposition with 
 a mb. 
 
16 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 90J 
 
 !-r 
 
 I 
 
 95 
 
 Oh blindness to the future ! kindly given, S 
 
 That each may fill the circle marked by Heaven: 
 
 Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, 
 
 A hero perish, or a sparrow fall. 
 
 Atoms or systems into ruin hurled. 
 
 And now a bubble burst, and now a world. 
 
 C ^-Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar; 
 
 Wait the great teacher Death, and God adore. 
 
 What future bliss He gives not thee to know. 
 
 But gives th at hope to be thy blessing now. 
 
 Hope springs eternal in the human breast; 
 
 Man never is, but always to be, blest. 
 
 The soul, uneasy, and confined from home. 
 
 Rests and expatiates in a life to come. 
 
 Lo! the poor Indian, whoso untutored mind • 
 
 Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; 
 
 His soul proud science never taught to stray A 
 
 Far as the solar walk or milky way; |?; 
 
 Yet simple Nature to his hope has given, 
 
 Behind the cloud-topped hill, an humbler heaven; ;p' 
 
 Some safer world in depth of woods embraced, loj 
 
 Some happier island in the watery waste. f 
 
 Where slaves once more their native land behold. 
 
 No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold. 
 
 To be, contents his natural desire; 
 
 100 
 
 85. Interjections govern both the nominative and objective of pronou 
 
 but the nominative only of nouns. ^ 
 
 87 Who relates to Heaven, which is here used for God, and God, in t.M 
 end of the line, is connected with who, by the conjunction as—ov, those nour 
 which folloAV the conjunction as, and have a like mea.ning with those < 
 which they are connected, may be considered in apposition with the same, 
 
 92 ^V^it for the great teacher. By a particular usage of langu^e, ti 
 
 objective case is put after many verbs which do not pass over to them, i 
 the real objects of an action. ^ 1 , 
 
 93 What future bliss.— That is^ what future bliss shall be. . . 
 
 94. Further opened in, Epistle II., verse 283; Epistle III , verse i4, Epist 
 
 ^^ 62 . The ancient opinion that the souls of the just went thither. Pope. 1 
 To the solar walk, that is, the circuit of the sun. ^ 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 17 
 
 I He asks no angel’s wings, no seraph’s fire; no 
 
 : But thinks, admitted to that equal sky. 
 
 His faithful dog shall bear him company. 
 
 ly. Go, wiser thou ! and in thy scale of sense, 
 
 /Weigh thy opinion against Providence; 
 
 Call imperfection what thou fanciest such, 1 1 5 
 
 Say, Here He gives too little, there too much ! 
 
 Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust, 
 
 1 et cry. If man’s unhappy, God’s unjust; 
 
 If man alone engross not Heaven’s high care. 
 
 Alone made perfect here, immortal there: 120 
 
 Snatch from His hand the balance and the rod, 
 
 Ke- judge His justice, be the god of God. 
 
 T u pride^ i n reasoning pride , our error lies; 
 
 All quit their sphere and rush into the skies ! 
 
 Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes, 125 
 
 Men would be angels, angels would be gods. 
 
 Aspiring to be gods if angels fell. 
 
 Aspiring to be angels men rebel: 
 
 And who but wishes to invert the laws 
 Of order, sins against the Eternal Cause. 1 30 
 
 V. Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine. 
 
 Earth for whose use. Pride answers, ‘ ‘ ’Tis for mine ! 
 
 For me kind Hature wakes her g enial power, 
 
 I Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower; 
 
 Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew 135 
 
 - ' Oi 
 
 The juice nectareous and the balmy dew; ' 
 
 112. So in Homer, at the funeral of Patroclus, xxiii. 12, of our poet’s trans- 
 lation: 
 
 “ Of nine large dogs, domestic at his board, 
 
 Fall two, selected to attend their lord.” — Wakefield. 
 
 113. Sense. — Here used for “ the senses.” 
 
 Go, thou, who art wiser than the poor Indian. 
 
 ‘ 115. Call that^ imperfection, irhich thou fanciest to be such. 
 
 117. Gust.— Gratification of the palate, relish— opposed to disgust. 
 
 ! 120. If he he not alone made, etc., then snatch. 
 
 ! 121. Balance.— Of justice, in which qualities are weighed.— Rod, the rod 
 
 of chastisement for offenses. 
 
 129. He who, etc., sins. When hut can be changed into only, without in- 
 juring the sense, it is an adverb. 
 
18 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 For me the mine a thousand treasures brings; 
 
 For me health gushes from a thousand springs; 
 
 Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; 
 
 My footstool earth, my canopy the skies !” 140 
 
 But errs not Nature from this gracious end. 
 
 From burning suns when livid deaths descend, ! 
 
 When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep 
 Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep ? 
 
 “ No,” ’tis replied, “ the first Almighty Cause 14c 
 
 x\cts not by partial but by general laws: 
 
 The exceptions few; some change since all began; 
 
 And what created perfect ?” — Why then man ? 
 
 If the great end be human happiness. 
 
 Then Nature deviates; and can man do less ? 150 
 
 As much that end a constant course requires 
 Of showers and sunshine, as of man’s desires: 
 
 As much eternal springs and cloudless skies. 
 
 As men forever temperate, calm, and wise. 
 x'Tf plagues or earthquakes break not Heaven’s design, 155I 
 —Why then a Borgia or a Catiline ? I 
 
 140. Isaiali Ixvi. 1: “Thus saith tl)e Lord, The heaven is my throne, and 
 the earth is my footstool.” It has been said no sane man could ever pretei d 
 that “ earth was his footstool,” and Pope alone is responsible for the unbe-, 
 coming? misapplication of the prophet’s language. 
 
 141. But does not nature err from this gracious end, viz.: the blessings 
 enumerated above. 
 
 147. Some change.— That is. There has been some change. 
 
 150 Then Nature deviates. — If the great end of terrestrial creation is 
 allow d to be human happiness, then it is clear that Nature sometimes de* 
 viates from that end, as in the instance of plagues and earthquakes. 
 
 151-153. That end as much requires eternal springs, etc., as it requires that 
 men should be forever temperate, etc. 
 
 >150. Borgia.— Caesar Borgia, a natural son of Pope Alexander VI. He 
 was one of the greatest monsters of a time of depravity, when the court of 
 Borne was the scene of all the worst forms of crime. Early made a cai-dinal, 
 he, through envy, caused his brother to be assassinated. Having under- 
 taken for the Holy See the conquest of the Romagna, he murdered the right- 
 ful lords of that country, notwithstanding that their lives had been guaran- 
 teed by his oath. He afterwards prepared poison for twelve cardinals. The 
 poisoned wine was by mistake drunk by both the pope and himself. The 
 pope died, but he recovered. Caesar was ultimately killed in battle in 1507. 
 
 Catiline. — Lucius Sergius Catilina, born about 108 B.c., the author of a 
 conspiracy or political revolution in Rome, which has made his name infa- 
 mous to all ages. The history of it has been written by Sallust. Catiline 
 was slain in battle, b.c. 62. 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 19 
 
 Who knows but He, whose hand the lightning forms, 
 
 Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms, 
 
 Pours fierce ambition in a Caesar’s mind, 
 
 Or turns young x\mmon loose to. scourge mankind ? i6o 
 From pride, from pride our very reasoning springs; 
 
 Account for moral, as for natural things: 
 
 Why charge Ve Heaven in those, in these acquit ? 
 
 In both to reason right is to submit. 
 
 Better for us, perhaps, it might appear, 165 
 
 Were there all harmony, all virtue here; 
 
 That never air or ocean felt the wind; 
 
 That never passion discomposed the mind. 
 
 But all subsists by elemental strife; 
 
 And passions are the elements of life. 170 
 
 ffhe general order, since the whole began, 
 ds kept in nature, and is kept in man. 
 
 VI. What would this man ? Now upward wdl he soar. 
 And little less than angel, w^ould be more ! 
 
 Now looking downwards, just as grieved appears 175 
 
 To want the strength of bulls, the fur of bears. 
 
 Made for his use, all creatures if he call. 
 
 Say what their use, had h^ the powers of all: 
 
 Nature to these without profusion kind. 
 
 The proper organs, proper powers assigned ; 1 80 
 
 158. Who knows but he, whose hand, etc., pours f 
 
 159. Ju lius Caesar is here meant. 
 
 160 . Young Ammon. — Alexander the Great, of Macedon, who visited the 
 tempTe of Jupiter Ammon in Africa, and was styled by the priests son of 
 their god. 
 
 166. If all were /larmoni/ there (i.e., in the operations of nature), and all 
 virtue here (i.e., in the actions of men). 
 
 170. See this subject extended in Epistle II. from verse 100 to 122; verse 
 165, etc. — Pope. 
 
 173. What would this man do or have; or what wishes this man. When 
 the interrogative is not directly the nominative to the verb, there being no 
 other nominative case, it is either the nominative after the verb, governed 
 by it, or by a preposition expressed or understood. 
 
 174. “ Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned 
 him with glory and honor.”— Psalm viii. 5. 
 
 179-181. Nature, being kind without profusion, assigned the proper organs, 
 etc., and compensated each seeming want. 
 
20 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 Each seeming want ^jmj)ensated of course, 
 
 Here with degrees of swiftness, there of force: 
 
 All in exact proportion to the state; 
 
 Nothing to add, and nothing to abate: 
 
 Each beast, each insect happy in its own : 
 
 Is Heaven unkind t o man, and man alone ? 
 
 Shall he alone, whom rational we call, 
 
 Be pleased with nothing, if not blessed with all ? 
 
 The bliss of man (could pride that blessing find). 
 Is not to act or think beyond mankind; 
 
 / No powers of body or of soul to share, 
 
 ^N^But what his nature and his state can bear. 
 
 Why has not man a microscopic eye ? 
 
 For this plain reason, man is not a fiy. 
 
 Say what the use, were ^ner optics given. 
 
 To inspect a mite, not comprehend the heaven ? 
 
 Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o’er. 
 
 To smart and agonize at every pore ? 
 
 Or quick effluvia darting through the brain, 
 
 Die of a rose in aromatic pain ? 
 
 If Nature thundered in his opening ears, 
 
 i8s 
 
 I 
 
 190J, 
 
 195 1 ' 
 
 200 ? 
 
 182. It is a certain axiom in the anatomy of creatures, that in proportion ^ ^ 
 as they are formed for strength, their swiftness is lessened; or as they are^; * 
 formed for swiftness, their strength is abated. — Pope. * ; 
 
 184. To add and to abate seem to imply a passive signification— Nothing D 
 
 to be added and nothing to be abated. Vj 
 
 See Epistle III., verse 79, etc., and verse 109, etc — Pope. 
 
 185. In its own.— Supply “condition.” 
 
 190. Not to act or think beyond mankind is a substantive phrase used as a 
 nominative after is, and to share no powers is connected with it. 
 
 193-204. These lines have very often been misunderstood, and turned out 
 of their true meaning. The poet adverts to the five senses, in order; asking 
 first. Why man has not a microscopic eye, i.e., an eye formed to see the 
 smallest objects, as are those of flies? and then answers, because man is not 
 a fiy. On the principle of optics, if we could see much more minutely, we 
 could not take in so large a space of the heavens at one view; as a fiy cannot 
 see the whole of one side of a building upon which he may light. What 
 would be the use, if finer touch were given, if this keener sensation cause or 
 make us smart and agonize at every pore? Smell is supposed to be occa- 
 sioned by some effluvia passing through the brain; and what the use, were 
 this sense so quick, or the effect of these passing effluvia so powerful, as to 
 make us die of the smell of a rose in aromatic pain? 
 
 201. It is justly objected that the argument required an instance di-awn 
 from real sound, and not from the imaginary music of the spheres. Locke's 
 
 
ESSAY OK MAK. 
 
 21 
 
 And stunned him with the music of the spheres, 
 
 How would he wish that Heaven had left him still 
 The whispering zephyr and the purling rill ! 
 
 Who finds not Providence all good and wise, 205 
 
 Alike in what it gives, and what denies ? 
 
 VII. Far as creation^ ample range extends. 
 
 The scale of sensual, mental powers ascends. 
 
 Mark how it mounts to man’s imperial race. 
 
 From the green myriads in the peopled grass; 210 
 
 What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme, 
 
 The mole’s dim curtain, and the lynx’s beam: 
 
 Of smell, the headlong lioness between. 
 
 And hound sagacious on the tainted green: 
 
 Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood, 215 
 
 To that which warbles through the vernal wood ! 
 
 •The spider’s touch how exquisitely fine ! 
 
 Feels at each thread, and lives along the line: 
 
 In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true 
 
 From poisonous herbs extracts the healing dew ? 220 
 
 How instinct varies in the groveling swine. 
 
 Compared, half-reasoning elephant, with thine ! 
 
 ’Twixt that and reason, what a nice barrier I 
 Forever separate, yet for ever near ! 
 
 illustration of this doctrine is not only proper but poetical. “ If our sense 
 of hearing were but one thousand times quicker than it is, how would a per- 
 petual noise distract us; and we should, in the quietest retirement, be less 
 able to sleep or meditate than in the middle of a sea-fight.” 
 
 202. Music of the spheres. — An ancient fancy that the rotation of the 
 planets was accompanied with sound, each planet giving a note higher than 
 that next it. 
 
 211. How many modes or degrees of sight are there between the dimness 
 of the mole's, and the sharpness of the lynx's? What may be made a rela- 
 tive or demonstrative pronoun. 
 
 213. The lion is said to be defective in the sense of smell, so much so as 
 not to pur.sue his prey by scent, as do the hounds. 
 
 215. i he life that fills the Hood— fishes, which are in a degree destitute of 
 hearing. 
 
 217. It fi.e., the spider’s touch) feels. 
 
 219. Nice. — Distinguishing accurately. 
 
 222. The elephant is here addressed, and called half reasoning, on account 
 of his superior sagacity, compared with other animals. 
 
 2-^3. Barrier. — Now accented on the first syllable. 
 
 ’Twixt that and reason, i.e., ’twixt the instinct of the elephant and reason. 
 
22 
 
 ESSAY OK MAK. 
 
 
 Kemembrance and reflection, how allied; 225 
 
 What thin partitions sense from thought divide; 
 
 And middle natures, how they long to join. 
 
 Yet never pass the insuperable line! 
 
 Without this just gradation, could they be 
 Subjected, these to those, or all to thee ? 230 
 
 The powers of all subdued by thee alone, 
 
 [s not thy reason all these powers in one ? 
 
 VIII. See, through this air, this ocean, and this earth. 
 
 All matter quick, and bursting into birth. 
 
 Above, how high progressive life may go! 235 
 
 Around, howwddel how deep extend below! 
 
 /Vast chain of being! which from God began, 
 
 ■ Natures ethereal, human, angel, man. 
 
 Beast, bird, flsh, insect, what no eye can see, 
 
 No glass can reacli; from infinite to thee, 240 
 
 From thee to nothing. On superior powers 
 Were we to press, inferior might on ours: 
 
 Or in the full creation leave a void. 
 
 Where, one step broken, the great scale’s destroyed: 
 
 From Nature’s chain whatever link you strike, 245 
 
 Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. 
 
 And if each system in gradation roll 
 Alike essential to the amazing whole. 
 
 The least confusion but in one, not all 
 
 That system only, but the w^hole must fall. 250 
 
 Let earth unbalanced from her orbit fly. 
 
 Planets and suns run lawless through the sky; 
 
 226. Tho^jght.— Reasoning, as opposed to seeing, feeling, etc., implied in 
 the word sense used in the verse. 
 
 237. Vast chain of being! comprehending natures ethereal, etc. In ex- 
 clamatory sentences, like this, the noun, as chain, seems to be a nominative 
 independent, in a different sense from that where an adoress is made; but 
 we have no established rule for it and therefore must understand a verb. 
 
 239. What that which no glass can reach, viz., animalcules, which cannot 
 be discovered even by the best magnifiers; extending from infinite to thee. 
 Extending agrees with which, after being, in line 237. 
 
 252. The construction here is: Let planets and suns run lawless through 
 
ESSAY ON MAN, 
 
 23 
 
 Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurled, 
 
 Being on being wrecked, and world on world; 
 
 Heaven’s whole foundations to their center nod, 255 
 
 . And Nature tremble to the throne of God! 
 
 All this dread order break — for whom ? for thee ? 
 
 Vile worm! — Oh! madness! pride! impiety! 
 
 IX. What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread, 
 
 Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head ? 260 
 
 What if the head, the eye, or ear repii^ 
 
 To serve mere engines to the ruling mind ? 
 
 Just as absurd for any part to claim 
 To be another in this general frame; 
 
 Just as absurd to mourn the tasks or pains • 265 
 
 The great directing Mind of all ordains. 
 
 All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
 
 Whose body Nature is, and God the soul ; 
 
 That, changed through all, and yet in all the same. 
 
 Great in the earth, as in the ethereal frame, 270 
 
 Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze. 
 
 Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees. 
 
 Lives through all life, extends through all extent. 
 
 Spreads undivided, operates unspent; 
 
 I Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, 275 
 
 I As full, as perfect in a hair as heart; 
 
 ..f; As full, as perfect in vile man that mourns, 
 
 As the rapt seraph that adores and burns: 
 
 the sky, let ruling angels from their spheres be hurled, let being be wrecked 
 on being, and let world be wrecked on world, let heaven's whole foundations 
 nod to their center, and let Nature tremble to the throne of God. 
 
 259. What— see note to verse 173. 
 
 262. Engines is in the nominative case after to serve. 
 
 266. See the prosecution and application of this in Epistle IV., verse 162.— 
 Pope. 
 
 269. That— a relative pronoun referring to soul for its antecedent, and in 
 the nominative case to warms. 
 
 276. Which is as full. A hair may be considered as the most insignificant, 
 and the heart as the noblest, part of mortal man. The idea was probably 
 suggested by this passage of Scripture: Not a sparrow falleth to the ground 
 without his notice, and the hairs of our head are all numbered. 
 
24 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN, 
 
 To Him no high, no low, no great, no small; * 
 
 He fills. He hounds, connects, and equals all. 280 ? 
 
 X. Cease then, nor Order imperfection name: 
 
 Our proper bliss depends on what we blame. 
 
 Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree 
 Of blindness, weakness. Heaven bestows on thee. 
 
 Submit: inJ^hisjir any^other- sphere, 285. 
 
 Secure to be as blessed as thou canst bear; 
 
 Safe in the hand of one disposing Power, 
 
 Or in the natal, or the mortal hour. 
 
 All nature is but art unknown to thee; 
 
 All chance, direction which thou canst not see; 290 
 
 All discord, harmony not understood; 
 
 ' All partial evil, universal good; 
 
 And, spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite, 
 
 One truth is clear. Whatever is, is right. 
 
 Argument of Epistle II. 
 
 OP THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO HIMSELF, AS AN INDI' 
 VIDUAL. 
 
 I. The business of man not to pry into God, but to study himself. His, • 
 middle nature: his powers and frailties, verse 1 to 19. The limits of his, ^ 
 capacity, verse 19, etcX"lI The two principles qf_man, ^If-love and reaso^j j 
 both necessary, v^se .53, etc.'~''Seif^tcrv:T th'U® and why, verse’6T,'etcT'* 
 
 TEeff’*end the same, verse 81, etc. III. The passions, and their use, versesl 
 
 93 to 130. The predominant passion, and its force, 132 to 160. Its necessity, ( 
 in directing men to different purposes, verse 165, etc. Its providential use,i ) 
 in fixing our principle, and ascertaining our virtue, verse 177. IV. Virtue 
 and vice joined in our mixed nature, the limits near, yet the things separate. ^ 
 and evident: what is the office of reason, verses 202 to 216. V. How odious^' 
 vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into it, verse 217. VI. That, 
 however, the ends of Providence and general good are answered in our pas- 
 sions and imperfections, verse 238, etc. How usefully these are distributed 
 ^'to ah orders of men, verse 241. How useful they are to society, verse 251. 
 
 ^ And to individuals, verse 263. In every state, and every age of life, verse 
 273, etc. 
 
 28L Do not name or call order ^ imperfection. 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 25 
 
 Epistle II. 
 
 I. Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, 
 
 The proper study of mankind is man. 
 
 Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, 
 
 A being darkly wise and rudely great: 
 
 With too much knowledge for the skeptic side, 5 
 
 With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride, 
 
 He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest; 
 
 In doubt to deem himself a god or beast; 
 
 In doubt his mind or body to prefer; 
 
 Born but to die, and reasoning but to err; lo 
 
 Alike in ignorance, his reason such. 
 
 Whether he thinks too little or too much; 
 
 Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; 
 
 Still by himself abused, or disabused; 
 
 Created half to rise, and half to fall; 15 
 
 Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; 
 
 Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled; 
 
 The glory, jest, and riddle of the world j,.. 
 
 Go, wondrous creature ! mount where science guides. 
 
 Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides; 20 
 
 Instruct the planets in what orbs to run. 
 
 I. Know thyself was the favorite maxim of the ancients. It is here, 
 perhaps, more confined in its meaning. Know thy weakness, presume not 
 God to scan: for “ who by searching can find out God?” 
 
 5. The skeptic is one who professes to doubt all things. 
 
 6. The stoic pretends that our happiness should not in the least be affected 
 by our outward circumstances. 
 
 7. In doubt to act, or rest.— Johnson, in his translation of Crousaz, says 
 he cannot determine whether any one has discovered the true meaning of 
 these words. The language is wague, and incapable of an interpretation 
 which is generally true; but "the probable sense seems to be that man is in 
 doubt whether to embrace an active belief, or whether to resign himself to 
 a passive, inert skepticism. 
 
 10. Man is the onlyterrestrial being capable of reasoning, or of deducing 
 remoter truths from those which are known and admitted; yet, by assum- 
 ing false premises, or by improperly linking his ideas, he too frequently 
 stumbles upon false conclusions. Bid, i.e. only, to err. 
 
 II. The construction is, “ Such is the reason of man that he is equally ig- 
 norant whether he thinks too little or too much.” 
 
 14. Abused.— Deceived. 
 
 21. Instruct the planets as to the orbs in which they should run; or to point 
 out to the planets the orbs in which they should ruri. 
 
26 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 Correct old time, and regulate the sun; 
 
 Go, soar with Plato to the empyreal sphere. 
 
 To the first good, first perfect, and first fair; 
 
 Or tread the mazy round his followers trod, 25 
 
 And quitting sense call imitating God; 
 
 As Eastern priests in giddy circles run. 
 
 And turn their heads to imitate the sun. 
 
 Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule — 
 
 ^ Then drop into thyself, and be a fool ! 30 
 
 ' Superior beings, when of late they saw 
 A mortal man unfold all Nature’s law. 
 
 Admired such wisdom in an earthly shape. 
 
 And showed a Newton, as we show an ape. 
 
 Could he, whose rules the rapid comet bind, 35 
 
 Describe or fix one movement of his mdnd ? 
 
 Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend. 
 
 Explain his own beginning or his end ? 
 
 22 . Correct old time.— Warburton says that this refers to Sir Isaac New- 
 ton’s chronology. More probably Pope alluded to the Gregoi ian reforma- 
 tion of the calendar, adopted throughout the greater part of Europe towards 
 the close of the sixteenth century, though not in England till 1752. 
 
 ^ Regulate the sun. — Is said by Wakefield to refer to the use of equal 
 mean for unequal apparent time. 
 
 23. Empyreal.— Formed of fire, from Gr. empyros^ in fire, from em, in, 
 and pyr. fire. 
 
 Empyreal sphere.— The seventh of the seven fictitious spheres of the 
 'ancients, inhabited,” says Cicero, “ by that all-powerful God who controls 
 the other spheres.” 
 
 24. First.— From which all others are derived. 
 
 Fair. — Free from blemish, pure, beautiful. 
 
 26. Call quitting sense, imitating God. These are substantive phrases, 
 the latter in apposition with the former. 
 
 «^27, 28. A reference to the sacred dance of the Mohammedan monks. Plu- 
 tarch tells us, in his Life of Numa, that the followers of Pythagoras were 
 enjoined to turn themselves round during the performance of their religious 
 worship; and that this circumrotation was intended to imitate the revolu- 
 tion of the world. 
 
 34. And showed a Newton, etc.; i.e., with the same admiration of his su- 
 periority over his kind, in imitating them, which we feel, on seeing a brute 
 animal capable of showing, by his actions, so striking a resemblance to the 
 human species. 
 
 Newton.— Sir Isaac Newton, the most remarkable mathematician and 
 natural philosopher of his own or perhaps of any other age, born at Wools- 
 thorpe, in Lincolnshire, in 1642. His theory of gravitation, perhaps the 
 greatest scientific discovery ever made, is unfolded in his great work The 
 Principia. He died in 1727. 
 
 35-38. Could he (Newton), after all his mighty discoveries, describe or fix 
 one movement of his own mind. Could he explain his own beginning, qr 
 iajseiidy 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 27 
 
 !, Alas ! what wonder ! Man’s superior part 
 
 Unchecked may rise, and climb from art to art; 
 
 But when his own great work i^but begun, 
 
 What reason weaves, by passion is undone. 
 
 Trace science, then, with modesty thy guide; 
 
 First strip off all her equipage of pride; 
 
 Deduct what is but vanity, or dress. 
 
 Or learning’s luxury, or idleness, 
 
 . Or tricks to show the stretch of human brain, 
 i'^Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain; 
 
 k Expui^e the whole, or lop the exc^scent parts 
 Of all our vices have created arts; 
 i J Then see how little the remaining sum, 
 
 [ \ Which served the past, and must the times to come ! 
 ' II. Two principles in human nature reign; 
 
 ■ Self-loveTo urge, and reason to restrain; 
 
 Nor this a good,., nor that a bad we call. 
 
 Each works its end to move or govern all: 
 
 And to their proper operation still 
 Ascribe all good; to their improper, ill. 
 
 Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul; 
 Keason’s comparing balance rules the whole. 
 
 Man, but for that, no action could attend, 
 
 And, but for this, were active to no end: 
 
 Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot. 
 
 To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot; 
 
 40 
 
 45 
 
 50 
 
 55 
 
 60 
 
 42. An allusion to the web of Penelope in Homer’s Odyssey. 
 
 44. Pride.— Ornament, splendor. 
 
 50. Of all, which our vices have created or formed into arts. 
 
 Arts.— Metaphysics, logic, rhetoric, etc. 
 
 52. Which served the past, and must serve the times which are to come. 
 
 55. Nor do we call this {y'eason) a good principle; nor that {self-love) a bad 
 principle. 
 
 56. Each works its end, which is, etc. ; or the sub-phrase, to move or govern 
 all, may be in apposition with end. 
 
 58. To their improper operation ascribe all ill. 
 
 Ascribe.— Supply we before it. 
 
 59. Acts.— In the obsolete sense of moves to action. 
 
 62, Were active— an elegant poetical usage for would he active- 
 
28 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 Or, meteor-like, flame lawless through the void, 65 
 
 Destroying others, by himself destroyed. 
 
 Most strength the moving principle requires; 
 
 Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires; 
 
 Sedate and quiet, the comparing lies. 
 
 Formed but to check, deliberate, and advise. 70 
 
 Self-love still stronger, as its objects nigh; 
 
 Eeason’s at distance and in prospect lie: 
 
 That sees immediate good by present sense; 
 
 Eeason, the future and the consequence. 
 
 Thicker than arguments, temptations throng, 75 
 
 At best more watchful this, but that more strong. 
 
 The action of the stronger to suspend, 
 
 Eeason still use, to reason still attend. 
 
 Attention, habit and experience gains; 
 
 Each strengthens reason, and self-love restrains. 80 
 
 Let subtle schoolmen teach these friends to fight. 
 
 More studious to divide than to unite; 
 
 And grace and virtue, sense and reason split, 
 
 With all the rash dexterity of wit. 
 
 Wits, just like fools, at war about a name, 85 
 
 Have full as oft no meaning, or the same. 
 
 Self-love and reaso n to one end aspire. 
 
 Pain their aversion, pleajureTfieTfTreTsire; 
 
 - But greedy that, its object would devour. 
 
 67-69. It should be kept in mind that in all the following part of this work, 
 the poet treats of self-love as the moving, and reason as the comparing 
 principle. 
 
 72. Reason’s objects are at a distance. 
 
 74. Reason sees the future, etc. 
 
 79. Attention gams habit and experience. 
 
 81. Schoolmen.— These were the philosophers and divines of the Middle 
 Ages, but the name may here be used of moralists generally. 
 
 These friends. — Reason and self-love. 
 
 82. “ If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study 
 the schoolmen, for they are ^ cumini sectores'’ [‘dividers of cummin seed,’ 
 ‘ strawsplitters ’ ”]. — Bacon, Essay “ Of Studies. 
 
 83. Sense.— The five senses When used in a moral sense, it is equiva' 
 lent to Pope’s expression “ self-love.” 
 
 Split. — Separate, part. 
 
 Let them point out nice distinctions between grace and virtue, etc. 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 29 
 
 This taste the honey, and not wound the flower: 90 
 
 /pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood, 
 
 Vour greatest evil, or our greatest good. 
 
 III. Modes of self-love the passions we may call; 
 
 ^ ’Tis real good, or seeming, moves them all: 
 
 I But since not every good we can divide, 95 
 
 ^ And Reason bids us for our own provide, 
 
 ^ Passions, though selfish, if their means be fair, 
 if List under Reason, and deserve her care; 
 
 ^ Those, that imparted, court a nobler aim, 
 
 ^ Exalt their kind, and take some virtue’s name. 100 
 
 ' ^ In lazy a^hy let Stoics boast 
 
 , Their virtue fixed: ’tis fixed as in a frost; 
 j Contracted all, retiring to the breast; 
 
 But strength of mind is exercise, not rest: 
 j The rising tempest puts in act the soul, 105 
 
 I Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole. 
 
 On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail, 
 
 Reason the card, but passion is the gale; 
 
 L ^ov God alone in the still calm we find, 
 
 I: 
 
 ; He mounts the storms, and walks upon the wind. 1 10 
 
 i ^ Passions, like elements, though born to fight, 
 i 'j Yet, mixed and softened, in His work unite: 
 
 These ’tis enough to temper and employ; 
 
 But what composes man, can man destroy? 
 
 98. Liist.— Enlist. 
 
 We call the passions modes of self-love, 
 
 99. Those, that imparted. — The passions that have reason imparted to 
 them. 
 
 101. The Stoics, in their character of their virtuous man, mc^^dg^iiatiaj^ 
 desire, aversio n,. and exul tation ; included love and parental att'ection f rie ndi 
 
 sMD~and^ general ohari'fc nr tn all marUrmn; tharThevcdy 
 
 sidered it as a duty, arising from our very nature, not to neglect the welfare 
 
 oTTJ Ulilfd”S(5CI^y7out to be ever ready, according to our rank, to act either 
 ' the magistrate or the private citizen ; that their apathy was no more than a 
 freedom from perturbation, from irrational and excessive agitations of the 
 soul; and consequently, that the strange apathy commonly laid to their 
 ' charge, and in the demolishing of which there have been so many triumphs, 
 ►I .was an imaginary apathy, mr which they were no way accountable, 
 i, ^ 108. The card. — The paper in the mariner’s compass on which the points 
 'I f of the compass are marked. 
 
 ^ 114. Can man destroy that^ which composes man? 
 
30 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 Suffice that Keason keep to Nature’s road, 115 
 
 Subject, compound them, follow her and God. 
 
 Love, hope, and joy, fair Pleasure’s smiling train. 
 
 Hate, fear, and grief, the family of Pain, 
 
 These, mixed with art, and to due bounds confined. 
 
 Make and maintain the balance of the mind: 
 
 The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife 
 Gives all the strength and color of our life. 
 
 Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes; 
 
 And when in act they cease, in prospect rise: 
 
 Present to grasp, and future still to find. 
 
 The whole employ of body and of mind. 
 
 All spread their charms, but charm not all alike; 
 
 On different senses different objects strike; 
 
 Hence different passions more or less infiame. 
 
 As strong or weak the organs of the frame; 
 
 .f*" 
 
 i And hence one_maater--passion in the breast, 
 
 Like Aaron’s serpent, s\^lldws up the fe¥f ."" 
 
 As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath, 
 
 Keceives the lurking principle of death; 
 
 The young disease, that must subdue at length. 
 
 Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength: 
 
 So, cast and mingled with his very frame, t 
 
 The mind’s disease, its ruling mssion, came; ! 
 
 Each vital humor which should feedTthe whole, ( 
 
 Soon fiows to this, in body and in soul: 140 i 
 
 Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head, : ^ 
 
 As the mind opens, and its functions spread, A 
 
 il5. Let it suffice that reason keep. The verb is here put in the subjunc- ■ 
 tive mood after that. 
 
 121. These are the lights and shades--or, these make the lights and shades.] 
 125. To gj'asp present pleasures, and to find future pleasures, are the whole j 
 employ-??ienf of body and of mind. ij 
 
 181. One master passion, etc. This idea we believe is first to be found in 
 the writings of Longinus, the celebrated critic of other times, who attests 
 the sublimity of the Scriptures, in the passage, “ God said, Let thei e be 
 light, and there w^as light.” 
 
 138. The mind’s disease came to be, i.e., became, etc. 
 
 120 
 
 125 
 
 130 
 
 
 135 ■ 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 31 
 
 
 Imagination plies her dangerous art, ^ 
 
 And pours it all upon the pe ccant part. » 
 
 ISTature its mother, habit is its nurse; 145 
 
 Wit, spirit, faculties, but make it worse; 
 
 Keason itself hut gives it edge and power; 
 
 As Heaven’s bless’d beam turns vinegar more sour. 
 
 We^ wretched su^ects, though to lawful sway, 
 In„thisjV-enk_qu£nn s^^^ still obey; 150 
 
 Ah ! if she lend not arms as well as rules, 
 
 What can she more than tell us we are fools ? 
 
 Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend; 
 
 A sharp accuser, but a helpless friend ! 
 
 Or from a judge turn pleader, to persuade 155 
 
 The choice we make, or justify it made; 
 r : Proud of an easy conquest all along, 
 l|%. She but removes weak passions for the strong. 
 
 J So, when small humors gather to a gout, 
 
 -The doctor fancies he has driven them out. 160 
 
 Yes, Nature’s road must over be preferred; 
 
 Keason is here no guide, but still a guard; 
 
 VTis hers to rectify, not overthrow, 
 
 I v^nd treat this passion more as friend than foe: 
 j j A mightier power the strong direction sends, 165 
 
 ; f And several men impels to several ends : 
 
 Like varying winds by other passions tossed. 
 
 This drives them constant to a certain coast. 
 
 Let power or knowledge, gold or glory, please; 
 
 ^ Or (oft more strong than all) the love of ease; 170 
 
 150. Weak queen. — Reason. 
 
 152. What can she do, or what can she tell ns, etc. 
 
 ''' 153. She (reason) can teach us, etc. 
 
 163. To rectify, not overthrow, is her part. The infinitive is frequently 
 put after the verb is, of which it is the subject, and whose representative is 
 the pronoun it. 
 
 165. The strong direction— self-love. 
 
 ITO. Strong is an adjective agreeing with love, unless we understand the 
 compound relative what. An adjective or participle, or relative, included 
 in a parenthesis, may agree with its noun, or antecedent out of the same, 
 
32 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 Through life ’tis followed, even at life’s expense; m 
 
 The merchant’s toil, the sage’s indolence, F 
 
 The monk’s humility, the hero’s pride, x 
 
 All, all alike find Keason on their side. v 
 
 The Eternal Art, educing good from ill, 175 ' 
 
 Grafts on this passion our best principle: ;; 
 
 ’Tis thus the mercury of man is fixed. 
 
 Strong grows the virtue with his nature mixed; 
 
 The dross cements what else were too refined. 
 
 And in one interest body acts with mind. 1 80 ^ 
 
 As fruits, ungrateful to the planter’s care, 
 
 On savage stocks inserted, learn to bear, ^ 
 
 The surest virtues thus from passions shoot, A 
 
 Wild j^ature’s vigor working at the root. 9 
 
 What crops of wit and honesty appear . 
 
 From spleen, from obstinacy, hate, or fear ! 
 
 See anger, zeal and fortitude supply; 
 
 Even avarice, prudence; sloth, philosophy; 
 
 Lust, through some certain strainers well refined. 
 
 Is gentle love, and charms all womankind; 190 | 
 
 Envy, to which the ignoble mind’s a slave, , ^ 
 
 Is enmlation in the learned or brave; ' _ 
 
 Nor virtue, male or female, can we name, J ; 
 
 But what will grow on pride, or grow on shame. 
 
 Thus Nature gives us (let it check our pride) 195 # 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 and the contrary, but there can be no agreement or government of nouns • ^ 
 and verbs in the like situation. J 
 
 171. Through life it is followed, etc., i.e., the thing, whatever it be, that ^ 
 pleases more than other things. 
 
 172. The merchant's toil, the sage’s indolence, all find reason, etc. 
 
 177. The mercury of man— the temperament of the mind. 
 
 179. The dross cements that tchich otherwise would he, etc. 'k 
 
 184. Wild nature’s vigor working, etc. A substantive and participle are i 
 put absolute, in the nominative, when the case depends on no other word, ff 
 
 185. What is often used as a demonstrative pronoun, signifying how many, K 
 
 or how great. w 
 
 19.3. Male and female are adjectives agreeing with virtue. C 
 
 195. Thus nature gives us ( — ) the victue, etc. Some have allowed an ac- 9 
 tive verb to govern two objective cases, one of the person, and the other of 9 
 the thing; but a preposition may always be understood to govern the ■ 
 person. I 
 
ESSA^ O^iT MAN, 
 
 33 
 
 The virtue nearest to our vice allied; 
 
 Reason the bias turns to good from ill, 
 
 And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will. 
 
 The fiery soul ab,h 9 Tf! 2 .^ Catiline, 
 
 In Decius charms, in Curtins is divine: 200 
 
 The same ambition can destroy or save, 
 
 And makes a patriot as it makes a knave. 
 
 IV. This light and darkness in our chaos joined. 
 
 What shall divide ? The God within the mind. 
 
 Extremes in nature equal ends produce, 205 
 
 n man they join to some mysterious use; 
 
 Though each by turns the other’s bound invade, 
 
 As, in some well-wrought picture, light and shade,? 
 
 And oft so mix, the difference is too nice 
 Iiere ends the virtue, or begins the vice, 
 y ■ Fools ! who from hence into the notion fall, 
 
 \ That vice or virtue there is none at all. 
 
 If white and black blend, soften, and unite 
 A thousand ways, is there no black or white ? 
 
 Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain; ^ 215 
 
 ’Tis to mistake them costs the time and paiB 
 
 210 
 
 197. Reason turns the bias, etc. 
 
 198. Titus is the nominative case after reigns. 
 
 199. Catiline.— See note on Epistle I., 156, 
 
 I 200. Decius.— In a war against the neighboring states, the Roman army 
 1 under the consuls Titus Manlius Torquatus and Decius Mus, entered Cam- 
 i pania. A decisive battle was fought near Mount Vesuvius. The Roman 
 augurs having declared, before the battle, that the victory would belong to 
 the army which should lose one of its generals, it was agreed between the 
 consuls that, as soon as either wing should begin to give way, the consul 
 who commanded that wing should devote himself for his country. The 
 wing commanded by Decius having first given way, he executed his vow. 
 
 , Rushing into the midst of the enemy, he fell covered with wounds. 
 
 Curtius, Mettus or Metius.— A noble Roman youth who (according to 
 tradition) heroically sacrificed his life for the welfare of his country, 362 b.c. 
 A chasm, it is said, had opened in the forum or market-place in Rome, and 
 the soothsayers predicted that some great calamity would happen if there 
 were not thrown into the chasm the best wealth of the state. While it was 
 proposed to consult the oracles, and determine what this best wealth could 
 be, Curtius appeared on horseback and in full armor, and exclaimed — 
 “Rome has no greater riches than courage and arms.” He then rode over 
 the precipice imo the chasm, which immediately closed over him. 
 
 204. The God within the mind shall divide this light and darkness. 
 
 208. As light and shade invade each other’s bounds. 
 
84 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 1 
 
 ^ V. Vice is a monster of so frightful mien. 
 
 ' As to be hated needs but to be seen; 
 
 Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
 
 We first endure, then pity, then embrace: 
 
 \ But where the extreme of vice was ne’er agreed. 
 
 J Ask where’s the north? at York, ’tis on the Tweed; 
 In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there. 
 
 At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where. 
 No creature owns it in the first degree. 
 
 But thinks his neighbor farther gone than he; 
 
 Even those who dwell beneath its very zone, 
 
 Or never feel the rage, or never own; 
 
 What happier natures shrink at with affright 
 The hard inhabitant contends is right. 
 
 Virtuous and vicious every man must be; 
 
 Few in the extreme, but all in the degree: 
 
 The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wise; 
 
 And even the best, by fits, what they despise. 
 
 ’Tis but by parts we follow good or ill; 
 
 For, vice or virtue, self directs it still; 
 
 Each individual seeks a several goal; 
 
 But Heaven’s great view is one, and that the whole. 
 That counterworks each folly and caprice; 
 
 That disappoints the effect of every vice; 
 
 That, happy frailties to all ranks applied. 
 
 Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride. 
 
 Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief, 
 
 To kings presumption, and to crowds belief: 
 
 That virtue’s ends from vanity can raise. 
 
 Which seeks no interest, no reward but praise; 
 
 And build on wants, and on defects of mind. 
 
 220 
 
 225 
 
 230 
 
 235 ^ 
 
 
 218. To he hated is in the infinitive mode absolute. 
 241. That applied happy faculties, etc. 
 
 245-7. That can raise and can build, 
 
 247. Build.— Prefix “can” from 245. 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 35 
 
 The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind. 
 
 Heaven, forming each on other to depend, 
 
 A master, or a servant, or a friend, 250 
 
 Bids each on other for assistance call, 
 
 TllTone man’s weakness grows the strength of all. 
 
 Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally 
 The common interest, or endear the tie. 
 
 To these we owe true friendship, love sincere, 255 
 
 Each home-felt joy that life inherits here; 
 
 Yet from the same we learn, in its decline. 
 
 Those joys, those loves, those interests to resign: 
 
 Taught half by reason, half by mere decay. 
 
 To welcome death, and calmly pass away. 260 
 
 '^V'^hate’er the passion, — knowledge, fame, or pelf, — 
 
 Hot one will change his neighbor with himself. 
 
 The learned is happy nature to explore. 
 
 The fool is happy that he knows no more; 
 
 The rich is happy in the plenty given, 265 
 
 The poor contents him with the care of Heaven. 
 
 See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing. 
 
 The sot a hero, lunatic a king; 
 
 The starving chemist in his golden views 
 Supremely blest, the poet in his muse. 270 
 
 See some strange comfort every state attend. 
 
 And pride bestowed on all, a common friend: 
 
 See some fit passion every age supply, 
 
 Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die. 
 
 261. Let the passion he that which it maybe; or whatever may be con- 
 sidered as an indefinite pronoun, in which sense it is often used. 
 
 267. It is a striking truth, that those people, whom we might suppose the 
 most miserable, are apparently the most happy, and that. tr>o, under mis- 
 taken views of their own character: which is in itself sufficient evidence 
 that all ideas of happiness are illusory, unless founded on a rational refer- 
 ence to the concerns of another world. 
 
 269. The starving chemist — reference is here made to the alchemists who, 
 for a long time, were employed in vain search after the philosopher's stone, 
 which they fondly hoped would turn everything it touched into gold. See 
 the poet in his muse supremely blest. 
 
36 
 
 ESSAY OK MAK. 
 
 Behold the child, by Nature’s kindly law, 275! 
 
 Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw: | 
 
 Some livelier plaything gives his youth deligl'S I 
 
 A little louder, but as empty quite: | 
 
 Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage, | 
 
 And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age: 280 
 
 Pleased with this bauble still, as that before; | 
 
 Till tired he sleeps, and life’s poor play is I 
 
 Meanwhile opinion gilds, with varying rays. 
 
 Those painted clouds that beautify our days; - 
 
 Each want of happiness by hope supplied, 285 
 
 And each vacuity of sense by pride: 
 
 These build as fast as knowledge can destroy; 
 
 Tn Folly’s cup still laughs the bubble, joy; 
 
 One prospect lost, another still we gain; 
 
 And not a vanity is given in vain; 290 
 
 Even mean self-love becomes, by force divine. 
 
 The scale to measure others’ wants by tliine. 
 
 See, and confess, one comfort still must rise; 
 
 ’Tis this. Though man’s a fool, yet God is wise 1 
 
 Argument op Epistub III. 
 
 OP THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO SOCIETY. ||j 
 
 I The Whole universe one system of society, verse 7, etc. Nothing made ( 
 wholly for itself, nor yet wholly for another, verse 27. The happiness of , 
 animals mutual, verse 49, 11. Reason or Instinct operate alike to the go^< 
 of each individual, verse 79. III. Reason or instinct operates also to society 
 in aU animals verse 109. How far society carried by instinct, verse 
 How much farther by reason, 13I. IV. Of that which is called the state^ 
 
 nature verse 144 Reason instructed by instinct m the inv ention of tp 
 
 "l69; and in the forms of society, verse 179. V. Origin of pohtical soc- 
 
 I 
 
 279. Scarfs, garters.-Badges of the orders of knighthood. 
 
 J^-f^Fven mein becomes the scale. This, perhaps, the poet 
 
 leads u^todesire good rteatmen^ thin'e-thine is a pronoun, snppljfi 
 
 r,rgVe"of aVoSlcrandV^^^ 
 
 I 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 37 
 
 eties, verse 199. Origin of monarchy, verse 207. VI. Patriarcltal govern 
 ment, verse 215. Origin of true religion and government, from the same 
 principle of love, verse 231, etc. Origin of superstition and tyranny, from 
 the same principle of fear, verse 241, etc. The influence of self dove operat- 
 ing to the social and public good, verse 269. Restoration of true religion 
 and government on their first principle, verse 283. Mixed government, 
 vei-st 288. Various forms of each, and the true end of all, verse 303, etc. 
 
 Epistle III. 
 
 1. Here then we rest: “ The Universal Cause 
 Acts to one end, but acts by various laws.” 
 
 In all the madness of superfluous health, 
 
 The trim of pride, the impudence of wealth, 
 
 Let this great truth be present night and day: 5 
 
 But most be present, if we preach or pray. 
 
 Look round our world, behold the chain of love \, 
 Combining all below and all above. 
 
 See plastic Nature working to this end, 
 
 The single atoms each to other tend, lo 
 
 Attract, attracted to, the next in place 
 Formed and impelled its neighbor to embrace. 
 
 See matter next with various life endued, 
 
 Press to one center still, the general good. 
 
 See dying vegetables life sustain, 1 5 
 
 See life dissolving vegetate again: 
 
 All forms that perish other forms supply, 
 
 (By turns we catch the vital breath, and die,) 
 
 Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne. 
 
 They rise, they break, and to that sea return. 20 
 
 2. To one end. — The good of the whole. 
 
 4. Trim.— Ornament. 
 
 5. Let this great truth, etc. What is this great h'uth f The sentence 
 marked with a quotation answers. 
 
 9. Plastic. — Having power to give form. 
 
 10. See the single atoms, each tend toward the other. Each, or every one, 
 is a distributive expression for a number taken singly, and in apposition 
 with atoms. 
 
 11. See them attract — aivracted to is a participle from the complex verb 
 to attract to. 
 
 £ 14. Good, in the end of the line, is in apposition with center. 
 
38 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 ITothiiig is foi’eign; parts relate to whole; 
 
 One all-extending, all-preserving soul 
 Connects each being, greatest with the least; 
 
 Maoe beast in aid of man, and man of beast; ' 
 
 All served, all serving: nothing stands alone; 
 
 The chain holds mi,- and where it ends unknow^. 
 
 Has God, thou fool ! worked solely for thy good, 
 Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food ? 
 
 Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn. 
 
 For him as kindly spreads the flowery lawn: 
 
 Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings ? 
 
 Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings. 
 
 Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat ? 
 
 Loves of his own and raptures swell the note. 
 
 The bounding steed you pompously bestride 
 Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride. 
 
 Is thine alone the seed that strew's the plain ? 
 
 The birds of Heaven shall vindicate their grain. 
 Thine the full harvest of the golden year ? 
 
 Fart pays, and justly, the deserving steer; 
 
 The hog, that plows not, nor obeys thy call. 
 
 Lives on the labors of this lord of all. 
 
 Know, Nature’s children all divide her care; 
 
 The fur that warms a monarch warmed a bear. 
 While man exclaims, “ See all things for my use !” 
 “ See man for mine !” replies a pampered goose: 
 And just as short of reason ho must fall. 
 
 Who thinks all made for one, not one for all. 
 Grant that the powerful still the weak control; 
 
 25 
 
 30 
 
 35 
 
 40;: 
 
 'h 
 
 45 
 
 23 Greatest.— Prefix “the.” , . . . x, • 
 
 27 Has God worked, etc. Worlds here made a regular verb, which i 
 seldom the case, except in the sea-phrase. “ he worked hispasmge. feo 1 
 some of Pope’s other writings, we find catched instead of caught. 
 
 29 30. He who. etc., spreads ^ ^ 
 
 34’ Lioves of liis own and raptures. — Loves and raptures of his own. 
 40 Part pays — a part of the products of the year must be expended 1 
 support of the ox, by whose labors they were increased. 
 
 49. Grant man to be, etc. 
 
ESSAY ON" MAN. 
 
 39 
 
 Be man the wit and tyrant of the whole: 50 
 
 Nature that tyrant checks; he only knows, 
 
 And helps, another creature's wants and woes. 
 
 Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, 
 
 Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove ? 
 
 Admires the jay the insect’s gilded wings ? 55 
 
 Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings ? 
 
 Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods, 
 
 To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods. 
 
 For some his interest prompts him to provide, 
 
 For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride: 60 
 
 All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy 
 The extensive blessing of his luxury. 
 
 That very life his learned hunger craves, 
 
 ^e saves from famine, from the savage saves; 
 
 ^Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast, 65 
 
 And, till be ends the being, makes it blest, 
 
 JfcVhich sees no more the stroke, or feels the pain, 
 
 Than favored man by touch ethereal slain. 
 
 The creature had his feast of life before; 
 
 Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o’er ! 70 
 
 To each unthinking being. Heaven, a friend, 
 
 Gives not the useless knowledge of its end: 
 
 To man imparts it; but with such a view 
 As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too; 
 
 The hour concealed, and so remote the fear, 75 
 
 Death still draws nearer, never seeming near. 
 
 50, Wit.— Intellectual master. 
 
 53-6. Tlhe falcon^ jay , and hawk regard not the coloi-s. brilliancy, or musi- 
 cal powers of those creatures which they devour. They have but one ob- 
 ject, which is, to satisfy hunger. 
 
 54. Varying.— That is, varying with her position and the different angles 
 in which the reflected light strikes upon the eye. 
 
 56. Philomela.— The nightingale. Philomela, daughter of Pandion, 
 King of Athens, is fabled to have been changed into a nightingale. 
 
 68. Several of the ancients, and many of the Orientals since, esteemed 
 those who were struck by lightning as sacred persons, and the particular 
 favorites of Heaven. — Pope. 
 
 73 . View,— Vision, prospect, 
 
40 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 Great standing miracle ! that Heaven assigned ^ 
 
 Its only thinking thing this turn of mind. ^ 
 
 II. Whether with reason, or with instinct blest, 
 
 Know, all enjoy that power which suits them best: 8o 
 
 To bliss alike by that direction tend. 
 
 And find the means proportioned to their end. 
 
 Say, where full instinct is the unerring guide, 
 
 What pope or council can they need beside ? 
 
 Reason, however able, cool at best, 85 
 
 Cares not for service, or bat serves when pressed, 
 
 Stays till we call, and then not often near; 
 
 But honest instinct comes a volunteer, 
 
 Sure never to o’ershoot, but just to hit. 
 
 While still too wide or short is human wit; 90 
 
 Sure by quick nature happiness to gain. 
 
 Which heavier reason labors at in vain. 
 
 This too serves always, reason never long; 
 
 One must go right, the other may go wrong. 
 
 See, then, the acting and comparing powers, 95 
 
 One in their nature, which are two in ours; 
 
 And reason raise o’er instinct as you can. 
 
 In this ’tis God directs, in that ’tis man. 
 
 Who taught the nations of the field and flood 
 To shun their poison, and to choose their food ? 100 
 
 Prescient, the tides or tempests to withstand, 
 
 Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand ? 
 
 77 . Exclamatory sentences, like this, seem to have an independent sense ; 
 in the third person, as in the second, when an addi’essis made,— Great standv \ 
 ing miracle; that heaven did assign to its only thinking thing (or man) this 
 turn of mind. 
 
 86. Pre.ssed,— From press, originally to engage men by prest or earnest- 
 money for the public service, from L. prcesto, in readiness or in hand. 
 
 97. Kaise.— Prefer to, exalt. 
 
 101. Who gave them foresight to withstand ? prescAent is an adjective agree- 
 ing with them undei-stood. 
 
 102. The halcyon or kingfisher was reputed by the ancient.s “to build v 
 
 upon the wave.” and the entrance to the fioating nest was supposed to be) 
 contrived in a manner to admit the bird, and exclude the water of the 1 
 sea. V 
 
ESSAY ON MAN, 
 
 41 
 
 Who made the spider parallels design, 
 
 Sure as Demoivre, without rule or line ? 
 
 Who bid the stork, Columbus-like, explore 105 
 
 Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before ? 
 
 Who calls the council, states the certain day ? 
 
 Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way ? 
 
 III. God, in the nature of each being, founds 
 te proper bliss, and sets its proper bounds: no 
 
 But, as He framed a whole the whole to bless, 
 
 On mutual wants built mutual happiness: 
 
 So, from the first, eternal order ran, 
 
 And creature linked to creature man to man. 
 
 Whate’er of life all-quickening ether keeps, 1 1 5 
 
 Or breathes through air, or shoots beneath the deeps, 
 
 Or pours profuse on earth, one nature feeds 
 The vital fiame, and swells the genial seeds, 
 
 Hot man alone, but all that roam the wood. 
 
 Or wing the sky, or roll along the flood, 120 
 
 Each loves itself, but not itself alone. 
 
 Each sex desires alike, till two are one. 
 
 Hor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace: 
 
 They love themselves, a third time, in their race. 
 
 Thus beast and bird their common charge attend, 1 2 5 
 
 The mothers nurse it, and the sires defend; 
 
 The young dismissed to wander earth or air. 
 
 There stops the instinct, and there ends the care: 
 
 104. Demoivre. — An eminent mathematician, born in France in 1667, but 
 driven from his country by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, he 
 settled in London, where he died in 1754. He was an intimate friend of 
 Newton. 
 
 115-118. One nature feeds the vital flame, and swells the genial seeds of 
 everything of lifos which all quickening either keeps or breathes, or shoots, 
 or pours, etc., the verbs being connected, in each case, by or. This construc- 
 tion may, however, be doubted, and we are inclined to adopt the following: 
 Let or be taken for eUher as or whether, it will read thus — One nature feeds, 
 etc., of whatever, etc , all quick’ning either keeps (or sustains) either as (or 
 ivhether) it breathes, or shoots, or pours (i.e., puts forth) profusely, etc. 
 
 115. Ether. — The medium assumed in astronomy and physics as filling 
 all space. It was believed by some of the Stoics to be the animating prin- 
 ciple of all things. 
 
42 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 The link dissolves, each seeks a fresh embrace, 
 
 Another love succeeds, another race. 130 
 
 A longer care man’s helpless kind demands; 
 
 That longer care contracts more lasting bands: 
 
 Eeflection, reason, still the ties improve. 
 
 At once extend the interest and the love; 
 
 With choice we fix, with sympathy we burn. 135 
 
 Each virtue in each passion takes its turn ; 
 
 And still new needs, new helps, new habits rise, 
 
 That graft benevolence on charities. 
 
 Still as one brood, and as another rose. 
 
 These natural love maintained, habitual those: 140 
 
 The last, scarce ripened into perfect man. 
 
 Saw helpless him from whom their life began: 
 
 Memory and forecast just returns engage. 
 
 That pointed back to youth, this on to age; 
 
 While pleasure, gratitude, and hope combined, 145 
 
 Still spread the interest, and preserved the kind. 
 
 ^ IV. Nor think in Nature’s state they blindly trod; 
 
 \The state of Nature was the reign of God: 
 
 Self -love and social at her birth began. 
 
 Union the bond of all things, and of man. 150 
 
 Pride then was not; nor arts, that pride to aid; 
 
 Man walked with beast joint-tenant of the sT?ade; 
 
 The same his table, and the same his bed; 
 
 No murder clothed him, and no murder fed. 
 
 In the same temple, the resounding wood, 1 5 5 
 
 All vocal beings hymned their equal God: 
 
 130. Another love succeeds, another race succeeds. 
 
 134. Interest.— Advantage. 
 
 135. Fix.— Become constant. 
 
 138. Charities. — The natural affections, love. 
 
 142 Saw him helpless from whom their life began. 
 
 144. That— memory- This {tor ecSi^t) points, etc. 
 
 149. That is, Self-love and social love began at Nature's birth. 
 
 151. Nor icere arts, to aid that pride. 
 
 152. Joint tenant is in apposition with man. 
 
 155. Wood is in apposition with temple. 
 
ESSAY ON MAN^ 
 
 43 
 
 The shrine with gore unstained, with gold undrest, 
 Unbribed, unbloody, stood the blameless priest: 
 
 Heaven’s attribute was universal care. 
 
 And man’s prerogative to rule, but spare. i6o 
 
 Ah ! how unlike the man of times to come ! 
 
 Of half that live the butcher and the tomb; 
 
 Who, foe to Nature, hears the general groan, 
 
 Murders their species, and betrays his own. 
 
 But just disease to luxury succeeds, 165 
 
 And every death its own avenger breeds; 
 
 The fury-passions from that blood began, 
 
 And turned on man a fiercer savage, man. 
 
 See him from Nature rising slow to art ! 
 
 To copy instinct then was reason’s part; 170 
 
 Thus, then, to man the voice of Nature spake — . 
 
 “ Go, from the creatures thy instructions take: 
 
 Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; Jw 
 Learn from the beasts the physic of the field; 
 
 Thy arts of building from the bee receive; 175 
 
 Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave; 
 
 Learn of the little nautilus to sail. 
 
 Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. 
 
 Here, too, all forms of social union find, 
 
 157. The shrine ivas, etc. Unstained and undrest are participial adjectives, 
 having lost their original nature of pure participles by being joined with 
 the privative un. The privative always works this chance, when it makes the 
 part with which it is joined, imply, that the state or act, which the part 
 taken by itself, would express, never existed, or was never done. Thus, 
 wn-drest here means, that it never had been drest^ etc Undrest, when de- 
 rived from the verb to undress, to divest of clothes, is a participle. 
 
 160. To rule supplies a nominative after was understood, and spare is con- 
 nected with it. 
 
 161. Ah! how unlike was he to the man of times to come. Butcher and 
 tomb connected are in apposition with man. Man kills and devours for 
 food, half that live. 
 
 167. The /nr?/- passion s—/nrt/ is a substantive used as an adjective. 
 
 168. Man, in tue end of the line, is in apposition with savage. 
 
 Fiercer. — The positive here is not supplied. 
 
 173. It is a caution commonly practiced amongst navigators, when throv n 
 upon a desert coast, and in want of refreshments, to observe what fruits 
 have been touched by the birds, and to venture on these without furthei- 
 hesitation. 
 
 177. The idea of the nautilus sailing is now rejected. 
 
44 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 And hence let reason, late, instruct mankind; i8o 
 
 Here subterranean works and cities see; 
 
 There towns aerial on the waving tree. 
 
 Learn each small people’s genius, policies. 
 
 The ants’ republic, and the realm of bees: 
 
 How those in common all their wealth bestow, 185 
 
 And anarchy without confusion know; 
 
 And these forever, though a monarch reign. 
 
 Their separate cells and properties maintain. 
 
 Mark what unvaried laws preserve each state, 
 
 Laws wise as Nature, and as fixed as fate. 190 
 
 In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw. 
 
 Entangle Justice in her net of law. 
 
 And right, too rigid, harden into wrong; 
 
 Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong. 
 
 Yet go ! and thus o'er all the creatures sway, 195 
 
 Thus let the wiser make the rest obey; 
 
 And, for those arts mere instinct could afford. 
 
 Be crowned as monarchs, or as gods adored.” 
 
 V. Great Nature spoke; observant man obeyed; 
 
 Cities were built, societies were made: 200 
 
 Here rose one little state; another near 
 
 Grew by like means, and joined through love or fear. 
 
 Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend. 
 
 And there the streams in purer rills descend ? 
 
 What war could ravish, commerce could bestow; 205 
 
 And he returned a friend, who came a foe. 
 
 Converse and love mankind might strongly draw. 
 
 When love was liberty, and Nature law. 
 
 Thus states were formed: the name of king unknown. 
 
 Till common interest placed the sway in one. 210 
 
 192. In vain entangle justice, etc. 
 
 193. And harden right, made too rigid, into wrong. 
 198. Monarchs— See note to ver. 87, Epis. I, 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 45 
 
 ’Twas virtue only (or in arts or arms, 
 
 Diffusing blessings, or averting harms). 
 
 The same which in a sire the sons obeyed, 
 
 A prince the father of a people made. 214 
 
 VI. Till then, by Nature crowned, each patriarch sat, 
 King, priest, and parent of his growing state; 
 
 On him, their second Providence, they hung, 
 
 Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue. 
 
 He from the wondering furrow called the food. 
 
 Taught to command the fire, control the flood, 220 
 
 Draw forth the monsters of the abyss profound, 
 
 Or fetch the aerial eagle to the ground; 
 
 Till, drooping, sickening, dying, they began 
 Whom they revered as god to mourn as man: 
 
 Then, looking up from sire to sire, explored 225 
 
 One great first Father, and that first adored; 
 
 Or plain tradition, that this all begun. 
 
 Conveyed unbroken faith from sire to son; 
 
 The worker from the work distinct was known, 
 
 And simple reason never sought but one. 230 
 
 Ere wit oblique had broke that steady light, 
 
 Man, like his Maker, saw that all was right; 
 
 ; To virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod. 
 
 And owned a father when he owned a God, 
 
 Love all the faith and all the allegiance then, 235 
 
 > For Nature knew no right divine in men, 
 
 No ill could fear in God; and understood 
 I A sovereign being but a sovereign good. 
 
 I 211-214. ’Twas virtue only — 
 
 The same virtue, which in a sii e the sons obey’d. 
 
 That made a prince the father of a people. 
 
 217. Providence is in apposition with him. 
 
 219 — 222. He taught to command, to control, to draw, or fetch. 
 
 223-224. Till they began to mourn him, drooping, sick'ning, dying, as man, 
 whom they revered as God. Him is the antecedent of whom. With regard 
 to 7nan and God, see note to line 87, Epistle I. 
 
 223, The participles apply to the patriarch. 
 
 227. This All, i.e,, this universal frame of nature. 
 
 230. Simple reason never sought but one God or worker. 
 
 211. The allusion is to the refraction of light in passing through the ob* 
 lique sides of the glass prism. 
 
 236. The divine right of kings, which, at certain periods, has been so 
 ; .trongly urged, has no foundation in nature 
 
46 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 True faith, true policy, united ran. 
 
 That was but love of God, and this of man. 240 
 
 Who first taught souls enslaved and realms undone, 
 
 The enormous faith of many made for one; 
 
 That proud exception to all Nature’s laws, 
 
 T’ invert the world, and counterwork its cause ? 
 
 Force first made conquest, and that conquest, law; 245 
 Till superstition taught the tyrant awe. 
 
 Then shared the tyranny, then lent it aid. 
 
 And gods of conquerors, slaves of subjects made. 
 
 She, midst the lightning’s blaze and thunder’s sound. 
 
 When rocked the mountains, and when groaned the ground. 
 She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, 251 
 
 To power unseen, and mightier far than they: 
 
 She, from the rending earth and bursting skies. 
 
 Saw gods descend, and fiends infernal rise: 
 
 Here fixed the dreadful, there the blest abodes; 255 
 
 Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods; 
 
 Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust. 
 
 Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust; 
 
 Such as the souls of cowards might conceive. 
 
 And, formed like tyrants, tyrants would believe. 260 
 
 Zeal then, not charity, became the guide; 
 
 And hell was built on spite, and heaven on pride. 
 
 Then sacred seemed th’ ethereal vault no more; 
 
 Altars grew marble then, and reeked with gore: 
 
 Then first the panmn tasted living food; 265 
 
 242. Many made for one is a substantive phrase governed by the preposi- 
 tion of. 
 
 Enormous. — Out of all rule. 
 
 244. Cause.— Object of its existence. 
 
 249. She.— Superstition. 
 
 259. Such gods as— As is a relative pronoun when it follows the indefinite 
 pronoun such, agreeing with its antecedent: or, when its antecedent has an 
 adjective qualified by the adverb so agreeing with it. 
 
 264-268. Altars grew marble, i.e., became the scenes of cruelty. Marble 
 may be considered as an adjective agreeing with altars. Next he smeared 
 his grim idol, etc. And played the God, i e., made the popular idea that he 
 could wield, or stay the judgments of God, an engine against his foe. En- 
 gine is in apposition with God. 
 
 265. Elamen. — Among the Romans, a priest devoted to the service of a 
 particular god, and so called from the fillet which he wore round his head. 
 The word is the same as the ’LoiMiJilame.n, tTomfilum, a fillet of wool. 
 
ESSAY ON’ MAN. 
 
 47 
 
 'Next his grim idol smeared with human blood; 
 
 With Heaven’s own thunders shook the world below, 
 
 And played the god an engine on his foe. 
 
 So drives self-love, through just, and through unjust. 
 
 To one man’s power, ambition, lucre, lust: 270 
 
 The same self-love, in all, becomes the cause 
 Of whuA-j:estrains 4 rim-, -gavnrnment.and laws. 
 
 For what one likes, if others like as well. 
 
 What serves one will, when many wills rebel ? 
 
 How shall he keep what, sleeping or awake, 275 
 
 A weaker may surprise, a stronger take ? 
 
 His safety must his liberty restrain: 
 
 All join to guard what each desires to gain. 
 
 Forced into virtue thus, by self-defense. 
 
 Even kings learned justice and benevolence: 280 
 
 • Self-love forsook the path it first pursued, 
 
 And found the private in the public good. 
 
 ’Twas then the studious head or generous mind, 
 
 Follower of God, or friend of human-kind, 
 
 Poet or patriot, rose but to restore 285 
 
 The faith and moral Hature gave before; 
 
 Relumed her ancient light, not kindled new; 
 
 If not God’s image, yet His shadow drew; 
 
 Taught power’s due use to people and to kings; 
 
 Taught nor to slack, nor strain its tender strings, 290 
 
 The less, or greater, set so justly true, 
 
 That touching one must strike the other too; 
 
 * Till jarring interests of themselves create 
 The- ac(M>rdingjnusia. oLa wnlL-mixed state, 
 
 272. Government and laws, connected, are in apposition with the ante- 
 cedent part of what. 
 
 285-291. Rose, relumed, drew, taught, and set are all connected, having 
 the same nominative continued, viz., head, etc. 
 
 287. Kelume.— To light anew, to rekindle, from L. re, again, lumen, 
 light. 
 
 292 Touching one is an imperfect phrase, or part of a sentence, and is the 
 subject of the verb mtist strike. 
 
 294. The deduction and application of the foregoing principles, with the 
 use or abuse of civil and ecclesiastical policy, was intended for the subject 
 of the third book.— Popw 
 
48 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 Such is the world’s great harmony, that springs 
 From order, union, full consent of things; 
 
 Where small and great, where weak and mighty made 
 To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade; 
 
 More powerful each as needful to the rest, 
 
 And, in proportion as it blesses, blest; 
 
 Draw to one point, and to one center bring 
 Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or king. 
 
 For forms of government let fools contest; 
 
 Whate’er is best administered is best: 
 
 ^or modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; 
 jHis can’t be wrong whose life is in the right: 
 
 In faith and hope the world will disagree, 
 
 ^But all mankind’s concern is charity: 
 
 ^ All must be false that thwart this cne great end; 
 
 And all of Goj , that bless mankind, or mend. 
 
 Man, like the generous vine, supported lives; 
 
 The strength he gains is from the embrace he gives. 
 On their own axis as the planets run, 
 
 Yet make at once their circle round the sun, 
 
 So two consistent motions act the soul, 
 
 And one regards itself, and one the whole. 
 
 X Thus God and Nature linked the general frame, 
 \And bade self-love and social be the same. 
 
 295 
 
 300 
 
 305 
 
 310 
 
 315 
 
 ■ : { 
 
 296. Consent.— In this use obsolete. i 
 
 297-301 (Being) made to serve, etc. Each (being made) more powerful, i 
 and (each being), blest, etc. W^ere small and great, etc. Draw, etc. . , 
 
 298. “Where the small and weak are made to serve, not suffer,” “the 
 great and mighty to strengthen, not invade.” \ 
 
 306. His mode o//a^Y/l can't be wrong, etc. 
 
 309, 310. All modes of faith must be false, etc. And all modes must be of ‘ 
 God, etc. ; 
 
 314. At once.— At one and the same time. f 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 49 
 
 Argument of Epistle IV. 
 
 OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO HAPPINESS. 
 
 I. False notions of happiness, philosphical and popular, answered from 
 verses 19 to 26. II. It is the end of all men, and attainable by aU, verse 29. 
 God intends happiness to be equal; and, to be so, it must be social, since all 
 particular happiness depends on general, and since he governs by general, 
 not particular laws, verse 35. As it is necessary for order, and the peace 
 , and welfare of society, that external goods should be unequal, happiness is 
 not made to consist in these, verse 49. But notwithstanding that inequality, 
 the balance of happiness among mankind is kept even by Providence, by the 
 two passions of hope and fear, verse 67. III. What the happiness of indi« 
 ■ viduals is, as far as is consistent with the constitution of this world ; and that 
 ^ the good man has here the advantage, verse 77. The error of imputing tc 
 virtue what are only the calamities of nature or of fortune, verse 93. IV. 
 The folly of expecting that God should alter His general laws in favor of 
 particulars, verse 121. V. That we are not judges who are good; but that 
 whoever they are, they must be happiest, verse 131, etc. VI. That external 
 goods are not the proper rewards, but often inconsistent with, or destructive 
 I of virtue, verse 167. That even these can make no man happy without 
 :• virtue: instanced in riches, verse 185; honors, verse 193; nobility, verse 205; 
 greatness, verse 217; fame, verse 237; superior talents, verse 259, etc., with 
 pictures of human infelicity in men possessed of them all, verse 269, etc. 
 I VII. That virtue only constitutes a happiness whose object is universal, and 
 ^ whose prospect eternal, verse 309. That the perfection of virtue and happi- 
 ness consists in a conformity to the order of Providence here, and a resigna- 
 tion to it here and hereafter, verse 327, etc. 
 
 Epistle IV. 
 
 0 Happiness ! our being’s end and aim ! 
 
 • Good, pleasure, ease, content ! whate’er thy name: 
 
 I That something still which prompts the eternal sigh, 
 
 . For which we bear to live, or dare to die; 
 
 f 
 
 Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, 5 
 
 O’erlooked, seen double by the fool and wise: 
 
 Plant of celestial seed ! if dropped below, 
 
 Say, in what mortal soil thou deign’st to grow ? 
 
 Fair opening to some court’s propitious shine, 
 
 Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine ? 10 
 
 1, 2. End aud aim connected, good, etc., are in apposition with happinef^s. 
 Whatever— see note to line 26, Epistle II. 
 
 6. Overlooked is a perfect participle, agreeing with happiness. Overlooked 
 by those who are simple enough to seek it in anything but virtue; seen 
 double by those who admit anything else to have a share in procuring it. 
 
 9. Growest the opening fair, etc. — or gro west those in the fair opening. 
 
 Shine.— Splendor, brightness, not common as a noun. 
 
50 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield, 
 
 Or reaped in iron harvests of the field ? 
 
 Where grows ? where grows it not ? If vain our toil, 
 
 We ought to blame the culture, not the soil: 
 
 Fixed to no spot is happiness sincere, 1 5 
 
 ’Tis nowhere to be found, or everywhere: 
 
 ’Tis never to be bought, but always free; 
 
 And, fied from monarchs, St. John ! dwells with thee. 
 
 I. Ask of the learned the way ! the learned are blind; 
 
 This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind; 20 
 
 Some place the bliss in action, ,^ome in easfi^.. 
 
 Those call it pleasure, and contentment these; 
 
 Some, sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain; 
 
 Some, swelled to gods, confess e’en virtue vain; 
 
 Or, indolent, to each extreme they fall, 25 
 
 To trust in everything, or doubt of all. 
 
 Who thus define it, say they more or less 
 Than this, that happiness is happiness ? 
 
 II. Take Nature’s path, and mad Opinion’s leave; 
 
 All states can reach it, and all heads conceive; 30 
 
 Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell; 
 
 There needs but thinking right^ and meaning well; 
 
 And mourn our various portions as we please. 
 
 Equal is common sense, and common ease. 
 
 11. Parnassian.— Relating to Parnassus, a mountain in Greece, sacred to 
 Apollo and the Muses. 
 
 12. The allusion is to military fame. , 
 
 15. Sincere, — Clean, pure, the original meaning. 
 
 21. Action. — Epicureans. — Pope. ' 
 
 They were the followers of Epicurus, a Greek philosopher, who taught ( 
 that pleasure was the chief good. Pope does not give their real character, 
 nor that of the Stoics. ' 
 
 Ease.— Stoics.— Pope. See note 101 on Epistle II. 
 
 23. Epicureans.— Pope. 
 
 24. Stoics. — Pope. 
 
 25. Indolent is an adjective agreeing with they. 
 
 26. Skeptics. — Pope. i 
 
 27. 28. Do they, who thus define it, say more or leis than to say this, etc., 
 
 in which case, to say would follow than in the infinitive, which it does in ■ 
 place of a noun, and sometimes, of the indicative or potential mode. . 
 
 29. Take nature’s path and leave mad opinion’s paih. 
 
 32. There is needed only thinking right and 7neoMing well. Here the ac- g 
 
 tive form of the verb is used for the passive, and the substantive phrase is | 
 the nominative case. J 
 
 33. Mourn— see note to line 49. Epistle X. ■ 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 51 
 
 Remember, man, ^‘the Universal Cause 35 
 
 Acts not by partial, but by general laws,” 
 
 And makes what happiness we justly call, 
 
 Sub sist, n ot in tlm good of one, but all. 
 
 There’sliot a blessing individuals lind, 
 
 But some way leans and hearkens to the kind; 40 
 
 No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride. 
 
 No caverned hermit rests self-satisfied: 
 
 Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend, 
 
 Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend. 
 
 Abstract what others feel, what others think, 45 
 
 All pleasures sicken, and ‘all glorias sink: 
 
 Each has his share; and who would more obtain, 
 
 Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain. 
 
 Order is Heaven’s first law; and, this contest. 
 
 Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, 50 
 
 More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence 
 That such are happier, shocks all common sense. 
 
 Heaven to nia ^inHlmparti^ .wa.cQiifess. 
 
 If all are equal in their happiness: 
 
 But mutual wants this happiness increase; 55 
 
 All Nature’s difference keeps all Nature’s peace. 
 
 Condition, circumstance is not the thing; 
 
 Bliss is the same in subject or in king. 
 
 In who obtain defense, or who defend. 
 
 In him who is, or him who finds a friend: 60 
 
 Heaven breathes through every member of the whole 
 One common blessing, as one common soul. 
 
 37. And makes that, which we call happiness, to subsist, etc. 
 
 43. They, who most pretend to shun, or hate, mankind, seek, etc. 
 
 45. Abstract — see note to ver. 49, Epistle I. 
 
 49. And this confest. This is in the nominative case absolute with confest^ 
 or {being) confest. 
 
 51. But he, who infers from hence, that such are happier, shocks, etc. 
 Hence is an adjective put after from, as a substantive in the objective case, 
 or from hence is an adverbial phrase. 
 
 57. Condition. — Rank. 
 
 59. In {those) who obtain defense, etc. 
 
 62. As {it breathes) one common souL 
 
52 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 But Fortune’s gifts if each alike possessed, 
 
 And each were equal, must not all contest ? 
 
 If then to all men happiness was meant, 65 
 
 God in externals could not place content. 
 
 Fortune her gifts may variously dispose. 
 
 And these be happy called, unhappy those; 
 
 But Heaven’s just balance equal will appear. 
 
 While those are placed in hope, and these in fear: 70 
 
 Hot present good or ill, the joy or curse. 
 
 But future views of better, or of worse. 
 
 O sons of earth ! attempt ye still to rise, 
 
 By mountains piled on mountains, to the skies ? 
 
 Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys, 75 
 
 And buries madmen in the heaps they raise. 
 
 III. Know, all the good that individuals find. 
 
 Or God and Nature meant to mere mankind. 
 
 Reason’s whole pleasure, all the joys of sense. 
 
 Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence. 80 
 
 But health consists with temperance alone; 
 
 And peace ! 0 virtue ; peace is all thy own. 
 
 The good or bad the gifts of fortune gain; 
 
 But these less taste them, as they worse obtain. 
 
 Say, in pursuit of profit or delight, 85 
 
 Who risk the most, that take wrong means or right ? 
 
 Of vice or virtue, whether blessed or cursed. 
 
 Which meets contempt, or which compassion first ? 
 
 Count all the advantage prosperous vice attains, ^ 
 
 ’Tis but what virtue flies from and disdains: 90 ‘ 
 
 68. These may be called happy, those may be called unhappy. -<^1 
 
 71, 72. Presen t good or ill is not the joy or curse. 
 
 But our future views, etc , are the joy or curse. *1 
 
 74. Referring to the Titans or giants of mythology, who, in their war | 
 against the gods, attempted to scale the heavens by piling mountain upon j| 
 mountain. .11 
 
 78. Mere mankind.— Man in his present condition. w 
 
 80. Lie agrees with pleasure and joys, in the line preceding; or rather withll 
 )ood, in the 77th line, with which pleasu7'es and joys are in apposition. II 
 84. Worse.— By worse means obtain them. |l 
 
 86. Do they risk most, that take wrong means, or they that take right 11 
 means. 11 
 
 90. ’Tis only that {advantage) from which, etc. 11 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 53 
 
 And grant the bad what happiness they would, 
 
 One they must want, which is to pass for good. 
 
 Oh ! blind to truth, and God’s whole scheme below, 
 
 Who fancy bliss to vice, to virtue woe ! 
 
 Who sees and follows that great scheme the best, 95 
 
 Best knows the blessing, and will most be blest. 
 
 But fools the good alone unhappy call. 
 
 For ills or accidents that chance to all. 
 
 See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just I 
 
 See godlike Turenne prostrate on the dust ! - icxd 
 
 See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife ! 
 
 Was this their virtue, or contempt of life ? 
 
 Say, was it virtue, more though Heaven ne’er gave, 
 Lamented Digby ! sunk thee to the grave ? 
 
 Tell me, if virtue made the son expire, 105 
 
 Why, full of days and honor, lives the sire ? 
 
 Why drew Marseilles’ good bishop purer breath. 
 
 When Nature sickened, and each gale was death ? 
 
 /t)r why so long (in life if long can be) 
 
 Lent Heaven a parent to the poor and me ? no 
 
 What makes all ph ysical or moral ill ? 
 
 " ^here deviates Nature, and here wanders will. 
 
 God sends not ill, if rightly understood, 
 
 91. Grant — see note to line 49, Epistle I. 
 
 92. One happiness they must want (i.e., must he destitute of) which is to 
 pass for good. 
 
 94 Bliss to vice. — Bliss granted to vice. 
 
 99. See Falkland dies— Lord Viscount Falkland was Secretary of State to 
 Charles I., and was killed in the battle of Newbury, September 20, 1643. 
 He fell in the thirty-fourth year of his age. 
 
 100. Henry de la Tour, Viscount of Turenne., a famous general, was born 
 at Sedan, 1611, and was Marshal of France in 1644. He was most careful 
 of those under his command; but justly reproached bj’’ Voltaire for his 
 cruel devastations of the countries through which he marched. 
 
 101. Sidney, — Sir Philip Sidney, who died of a wound received at the bat- 
 tle of Zutphen, September 22, 1586. The anecdote of his generosity to the 
 dying soldier is well known. 
 
 104. Digby.— The Hon. Robert Digby, who died April 19, 1726. He was a 
 friend of Pope, who wrote his epitaph. 
 
 106. The sire.— William, fifth Lord Digby, died December, 1752. The Epis- 
 tle was published iti 1734. 
 
 107. Henry-Francis-Xavier De Biilsunce, denominated “ the good 
 Bishop of Marseilles,” distinguished himself by his fortitude and charity, 
 during the dreadful plague which afflicted that citj" in 1720 and 1721. 
 
 110. Pope’s mother lived to the age of 91. She died in 1733. 
 
54 
 
 ESSAY ON MAIN. 
 
 Or partial ill is universal good, 
 
 Or change admits, or Nature lets it fall 1 1 5 
 
 Short, and but rare, till man improved it all. 
 
 We just as wisely might of Heaven complain 
 That righteous Abel was destroyed by Cain, 
 
 As that the virtuous son is ill at ease 
 
 When his lewd father gave the dire disease. 1 20 
 
 Think we, like some weak prince, the Eternal Cause 
 Prone for His favorites to reverse His laws ? 
 
 ^ “ lY. Shall burning ^tna, if a sage requires. 
 
 Forget to thunder, and recall her fires ? 
 
 On air or sea new motions be impressed, 125 
 
 O blameless Bethel ! to relieve thy breast ? 
 
 When the loose mountain trembles from on high. 
 
 Shall gravitation cease if you go by ? 
 
 Or some old temple, nodding to its fall. 
 
 For Chartres’ head reserve the hanging wall ? 130 
 
 V. But still this world, so fitted for the knave. 
 
 Contents us not. A better shall we have ? 
 
 A kingdom of the just then let it be: 
 
 But first consider how those just agree. 
 
 The good must merit God’s peculiar care; 135 
 
 But who, but God, can tell us who they are ? 
 
 One thinks on Calvin Heaven’s own spirit fell; 
 
 Another deems him instrument of hell; 
 
 If Calvin feel Heaven’s blessing or its rod, . jl\ 
 
 This cries there is, and that, there is no God. 140 
 
 115, 116. Or change admits it (i.e., ill), or nature, in its course, lets it hap- 
 pen, short and but rare, i.e., in a small degree, and but rai ely, etc. 
 
 121, 122. Do we think the Eternal Cause prone, like some weak prince, to 
 reverse his laws for his favorites? 
 
 123. There is an evident mixing up here of the story of the philosopher 
 Empedocles, who is said to have thrown himself into one of the craters of 
 uEtna, with that of the naturalist Pliny, who lost his life during an eruption 
 of Vesuvius, A.D. 79. 
 
 126. A Yorkshire country gentleman, who suffered from asthma. 
 
 128. You. not Bethel, but Bolingbroke. to whom the Epistle is addressed. 
 
 130. Chartres. — “ A man infamous for all manner of vices, who acquired 
 an immense fortune by a constant attention to the vices, wants, and follies 
 of mankind. He died in 1731.” Pope, Note to Moral Essays, iii. 20. 
 
 137. Calvin, one of the most eminent of the Church reformers, was born 
 at Noyon, in Picardy, in 1509, and died at Geneva in 1564. 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 55 
 
 mat shocks one part will edify the rest, 
 
 ^Tor with one system can they all be blest. 
 
 The very best will variously incline, 
 
 And what rewards your virtue, punish mine. 
 
 Whatever is, is ri^ht. This world, ’tis true, 145 
 
 Was made for Caesar, but for Titus too: ^ 
 
 And which more blest ? who chained his country, say, ^ / 
 Or he whose virtue sighed to lose a day ? 
 
 VI. ‘‘ But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed.” 
 What then T~~ls~thWreward~ of virtue bread ? 150 
 
 That vice may merit, ’tis the price of toil; 
 
 The knave deserves it when he tills the soil 
 The knave deserves it when he tempts the main,^ 
 
 Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain. 
 
 The good man may be weak, be indolent; 155 
 
 Nor is his claim to plenty, but content. 
 
 But grant him riches, your demand is o’er. 
 
 ‘‘No: shall the good want health, the good want power ?” 
 Add health, and power, and every earthly thing: 
 
 “ Why bounded power ? why private ? why no king ? 160 
 
 Nay, why ext ernal for internal given ? 
 
 Why is not man a god, an d ea rth a heaven ?” 
 
 Who^ k and r eason thus, will scarce conceive 
 God gives enough, while He has more to give: 
 
 Immense the power, immense were the demand; 165 
 
 Say, at what part of Nature will they stand ? 
 
 What nothing earthly gives or can destroy. 
 
 The soul’s calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy. 
 
 Is virtue’s prize. A better would you fix ? 
 
 Then give humility a coach and six, 170 
 
 H6. The allusion is to Addison’s tragedy of Cato, Act v. sc. 1: 
 
 “ This world was made for C8Bsar;” 
 and Av'^t iv. sc. 4: “ Justice gives way to force: the conquered world 
 Is Caesar’s; Cato has no business in it.” 
 
 148. The Roman Emperor Titus, having remembered one evening that he 
 had bestowed no gift during the day, exclaimed, “ My friends, I have lost a 
 day.” 
 
 160. WTiy no king? Why is the good man not a king? 
 
 163. They who ask and reason thus, will scarce conceive, etc. 
 
 165. If the power were immense, the demand would be immense. 
 
56 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 Justice a conqueror’s sword, or truth a gown, 
 
 Or public spirit its great cure, a crown. 
 
 Weak, foolish man ! will Heaven reward us there, 
 With the same trash mad mortals wish for here ? 
 
 The boy and man an individual makes, 175 
 
 Yet sighest thou now for appl^ and for cakes ? 
 
 Go, like the Indian, in another life 
 Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife. 
 
 As well as dream such trifles are assigned. 
 
 As toys and empires, for a godlike mind: 180 
 
 Eewards, that either would to virtue bring 
 Ho joy, or be destructive of the thing: 
 
 How oft, by these, at sixty are undone 
 The virtues of a saint at twenty-one ! 
 
 To whom can riches give repute or trust. 
 
 Content or pleasure, but the good and just? 
 
 Judges and senates have been bought for gold. 
 Esteem and love were never to be sold. 
 
 O fool ! to think God hates the worthy mind. 
 
 The lover and the love of human kind. 
 
 Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear. 
 Because he wants a thousand pounds a year. 
 
 V_ x^duor iind shame from no condition rise; 
 
 ^Act well_y;our part : there allJJheJxonor 
 Fortune in men has some'smalTdTfference niade: 
 One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade; 
 
 The cobbler aproned, and the parson gowned. 
 
 185 . 
 
 190 
 
 195 
 
 171. Gown.— An academic g:own. or it may mean a Lord Chancellor’s gown. 
 
 172. This may refer to William III., or, as stated by Elwin, to George II., 
 
 who when he became king abandoned the opposition (who were^ Pope’s 
 friends) which he had patronized when Prince of Wales. ' ' v 
 
 177. See Epistle I., 99. 
 
 178-180. Expect thy dog, etc., as well as dream Ih'eam may be put in . 
 the infinitive mode, after as well as, allowing expect to be in the imperative ,! 
 —or, using it in the potential, dream may be connected with it in the same I 
 mode. As toys and empires are— as is a relative pronoun in the nominative 
 case after are. 
 
 181. T7ie.se a?’e rewards. 
 
 189. To think is in the infinitive absolute. ."i 
 
 190. Love. — The beloved, the object of love. 
 
 192 Because he [pos.ses.ses not] a thousand pounds a year. A 
 
 196. Flaunts, Jlutiey's.— It has been suggested that these words might with 1 
 more propriety have changed places* ’ 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 57 
 
 The friar hooded, and the monarch crowned. 
 
 “What differ more,” you cry, “ than crown and cowl?” 
 
 I’ll tell you, friend ! a wise man and a fool. 200 
 
 You’ll find, if once the monarch acts the monk, 
 
 Or, cobbler-like, the parson will be drunk. 
 
 Worth makes man, and want q f jt the Mlow ; 
 
 The r est is all b ut leather or prunella. 
 
 Stuck o’er with titles, and hung round with strings, 205 
 That may’st by kings, or mistresses of kings : 
 
 Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race, 
 
 In quiet flow from Lucrece to Luerece: 
 
 But by your fathers’ worth if yours you rate. 
 
 Count mo those only who were good and great. 210 
 
 Go I if your ancient but ignoble blood 
 
 Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood, 
 
 Go ! and pretend your family is young, 
 
 Hor own your fathers have been fools so long. 
 
 What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?' 215 
 
 Alas ! not all the blood of all the Howards. 
 
 Look next on greatness: say where greatness lies. 
 
 “ Where but among the heroes and the wise !” 
 
 Heroes are much the same, the point’s agreed, 
 
 From Macedonia’s madman to the Swede. 220 
 
 The whole strange purpose of their lives to find. 
 
 201-203 You’ll find it, etc., that worth makes, etc. 
 
 204. Prunella. — A strong woolen stuff, generally black, and probably so 
 called from its prune color. The clergyman’s gown was made of it, 
 
 205-208. That thou mayest be stuck o'er with titles and hung round with 
 strings, by kings, etc. ; in quiet flow, etc. Flow is here a noun. It may be 
 further observed concerning the expressions, stuck o'er and hung round, 
 that when a preposition or any participle is annexed to a veib, in order to 
 carry out the sense, they may be considered as forming a complex verb, 
 Lucrece was the seat of a very ancient and honorable family in France, 
 and is here introduced to nobility of longstanding. 
 
 205. Strings. — The cord or ribbon of the orders of knighthood; in French, 
 cordon. 
 
 206. That, in apposition to the previous line. 
 
 208. From Boileau’s Satire V. 
 
 216. Not all the blood of all the Howards can ennoble them. 
 
 220. Alexander the Great and Charles XII. of Sweden. The former was no 
 madman. The epithet is more applicable to the latter. 
 
 221. The whole strange purpose of their lives, is to find an enemy, or to 
 make an enemy of all mankind. 
 
58 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 Or make, an enemy of all mankind ! 
 
 Not one looks backward, onward still he goes. 
 
 Yet ne’er looks forward farther than his nose. 
 
 No less alike the politic and wise; 225 
 
 All sly slow things, with circumspective eyes: 
 
 Men in their loose unguarded hours they take. 
 
 Not that themselves are wise, but others weak. 
 
 But grant that those can conquer, these can cheat 
 
 ’Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great: 230 
 
 Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave. 
 
 Is but the more a fool, the more a knave. 
 
 Who noble ends by noble means obtains, 
 
 Or, failing, smiles in exile or in chains. 
 
 Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed 235 
 
 ^Like Socrates: that man is great indeed ! 
 
 What’s fame ? A fancied life in others’ breath, 
 
 A thing beyond us, even before our death. 
 
 Just what you hear, you have, and what’s unknown 
 The same, my lord, if Tully’s, or your own. 240 
 
 All that we feel of it begins and ends 
 In the small circle of our foes or friends; 
 
 To all beside as much an empty shade 
 
 225. Alike. Compare much the same, verse 219. 
 
 226. All are sly, slow things, etc. 
 
 228. Not because themselves are wise, but because others are weak. 
 
 230. Great. Mark the pronunciation. 
 
 232. He, who wickedly is wise, etc., is, etc. 
 
 235. Aurelius.— Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman emperor, a. d. 161-180. 
 He was the flower of the Stoical philosophy, and became after his death al 
 most an object of worship. 
 
 Bleed is improperly used in reference to the death of Socrates, the cele- 
 brated Greek philosopher (born 469 b.c.), who died of poison. 
 
 240. My lord. — Bolingbroke. 
 
 Tully.— Marcus Tullius Cicero, the greatest orator of Rome, 106-43 b c. 
 
 243-246. To all beside their foes and friends^ a Eugene living is as much 
 an empty shade, as a Caesar dead is. When Julius Caesar had marched his 
 army to the banks of the river Rubicon, which the Romans had always con- 
 sidered as “ the sacred boundary of their domestic empire,” a struggle arose 
 between his patriotism and his ambition, and he said to one of his generals, 
 ” If I pass this river, what miseiies shall I bring upon my country ! and if I 
 now stop short. I am undone ” Here his ambition triumphed, and plunging 
 into the river, he sought the dominion of the world. 
 
 244. Eugene. — Prince Eugene of Savoy, who gained great military fame 
 in the wars of the Spanish succession. He died in 1736, two years after the 
 Epistle was published. 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 59 
 
 A Eugene living, as a Caesar dead; 
 
 Alike, or when or where they shone or shine, 245 
 
 Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine. 
 
 A wit's a fe ather, a rod-; ^ ^ 
 
 An honest man’s the nob lest w ork of God. j 
 Fame but frbm'death a villain’s name canFs^ej 
 As justice tears his body from the grave; ! j 250 
 
 When what to oblivion better were resigned, i [ 
 
 ft 
 
 Is hung on high, to poison half mankind. * } 
 
 All fame is foreign, but of true desert, ji ! 
 
 Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart: 
 
 One self-approving hour whole years outweighs 255 
 
 Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas; 
 
 And more true joy Marcellus exiled feels, 
 
 Than Caesar with a senate at his heels. 
 
 In parts superior what advantage lies ? 
 
 Tell, for you can, what is it to be wise ? 260 
 
 ’Tis but to know how little can be known; 
 
 To see all others’ faults, and feel our own; 
 
 Condemned in business or in arts to drudge. 
 
 Without a second, or without a judge: 
 
 Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land ? 265 
 
 All fear, none aid you, and few understand. 
 
 247. Two explanations of this line may be quoted: (1) The wise, such as 
 Shakespeare, Bacon, and Newton, are compared to feathers, which are 
 flimsy and showy; and the heroes, who are the scourges of mankind, are 
 compared to rods. (2) The feather alludes to the pen with which the wit 
 writes, and the rod to the baton which was the symbol of the authority of 
 the general. 
 
 248. Honest. — Full of honor, honorable, upright. 
 
 251. When that which would be better resigned to oblivion, is hung on 
 high, etc. 
 
 252. An allusion to the disinterment and hanging on a gibbet of the bodies 
 of Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Ireton, on January 30, 1661. 
 
 256. Of stupid starers . — This is a trope, by which the actor is put for the 
 act. 
 
 Huzzas . — Mark the pronunciation then in use. 
 
 257. Marcellus.— One of the most prominent of the party of Pompey op- 
 posed to Caesar. After the battle of Pharsalus,48B.c., in which Pompey was 
 signally defeated, he retired to Mitylene. He was afterwards pardoned by 
 Caesar, but was assassinated on his journey to Home. 
 
 262, 263. ’Tis but to see. — ’Tis but to be condemned. All would fear, none 
 would aid you, etc. 
 
60 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 Painful pre-eminence ! yourself to view 
 Above life’s weakness, and its comforts too. 
 
 Bring, then, these blessings to a strict account. 
 
 Make fair deductions: see to what they ’mount: 270 
 
 How much of other each is sure to cost; 
 
 How each for other oft is wholly lost; 
 
 How inconsistent greater goods with these; 
 
 How sometimes life is risked, and always ease. 
 
 Think, and, if still the things thy envy call, 275 
 
 Say, would'st thou be the man to whom they fall ? 
 
 To sigh for ribbons if thou art so silly, 
 
 Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy. 
 
 Is jellowjdirt the passion of thy life ? 
 
 Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus’ wife. 280 
 
 If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined, ■ 
 
 The wisest, brightest, meanest, of mankind: 
 
 Or, ravished with the whistling of a name, 
 
 See Cromwell damned to everlasting fame ! ; 
 
 If all, united, thy ambition call, 285 ; 
 
 From ancient story learn to scorn them all. 1 
 
 There, in the rich, the honored, famed, and great; 
 
 See the false scale of happiness complete ! 
 
 In hearts of kings, or arms of queens who lay. 
 
 How happy those to ruin, these betray ! 290 i 
 
 Mark by what wretched steps their glory grows, \ 
 
 From dirt and sea- weed as proud Venice rose; | 
 
 267. 268. To view yourself above life"' s weakness and its comforts too, is a ( 
 painful pre-eminence. 1 
 
 275. If thou art so silly as to sigh for ribbons. - 
 
 Call.— Call forth. i 
 
 278. No real characters may be intended. v. 
 
 279. The yellow dirt (i e., gold or wealth) the passion of thy life. f 
 
 2B0. Some say the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough are meant, othci s * 
 
 Mr/Wortley Montagu and liady Mary Montagu. 
 
 ^282. Bacon (1561-I6J6) — The greatest of England’s prose writers. He 
 
 pleaded guilty to certain abuses and charges of receiving bribes duiing his I 
 capacity of Lord Chancellor of England, for which he was sentenced to pay ' 
 an enormous fine, and to be imprisoned in the Tower during the King's 
 pleasure. f 
 
 283. Or, if thou art ravished with the whistling of a name I 
 
 286. Ancient story. — History. ^ 
 
 289, 290. How happy are those, to ruin who lay in the hearts of kings, and 
 how happy are these to betray, who lay in the arms of queens. ! 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 61 
 
 ! In each how guilt and greatness equal ran, 
 
 I And all that raised the hero sunk the man: 
 
 Now Europe’s laurels on their brows behold, 295 
 
 ' But stained with blood, or ill-exchanged for gold: , 
 
 Then see them broke with toils or sunk in ease. 
 
 Or infamous for plundered provinces. 
 
 O wealth ill-fated ! which no act of fame 
 
 E’er taught to shine, or sanctified from shame ! 30c 
 
 What greater bliss attends their close of life ? 
 
 Some greedy minion, or imperious wife 
 The trophied arches, storied halls invade. 
 
 And haunt their slumbers in the pompous shade. 
 
 Alas ! not dazzled with their noontide ray, 305 
 
 Compute the morn and evening to the day; 
 
 The whole amount of that enormous fame, 
 
 ^ A tale that blends their glory with their shame,! 
 
 Know, then, this truth, enough for man to know, 
 
 ' V" ‘ ‘ Virtue aloim-is-happ iness,.b^W^.” . 310 
 
 The only point whereTiuman bliss stands still, 
 
 And tastes the good without the fall to ill; 
 
 Where only merit constant pay receives. 
 
 Is blest in what it takes and what it gives; 
 
 The joy unequaled, if its end it gain, 315 
 
 And if it lose, attended with no pain: 
 
 Without satiety, though e’er so blest. 
 
 And but more relished as the more distressed: 
 
 The broadest mirth unfeeling Folly wears. 
 
 Less pleasing far than Virtue’s very tears: . 320 
 
 Good, from each object, from each place acquired. 
 
 Forever exercised, yet never tired; 
 
 294. Alluding to the Duke of Marlborough. 
 
 303. Storied. — Painted with historical subjects. 
 
 305, 306. View them not only in the blaze of their power, and the height of 
 their prosperity, but look at the labors undergone and the crimes com- 
 mitted in obtaining their superiority; and also at the miseries that are sure 
 to follow. 
 
 307, 308. The whole amount of that enormous fame is a tale that blends, etc, 
 
 311. It is the only point, etc. 
 
 314. Where only merit is blest, etc. 
 
62 
 
 ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 Never elated, while one man’s oppressed; 
 
 Never dejected, while another’s blest; 
 
 And where no wants, no wishes can remain, 325 
 
 Since but to wish more virtue is to gain. 
 
 See the sole bliss Heaven could on all bestow ! 
 
 Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can know; 
 
 Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind. 
 
 The bad must miss, the good, untaught will find; 330 
 
 Slave to jio sect,^ who takes no private^ road. 
 
 But looks through nature up to nature’s God; 
 
 Pursues that chain which links the immense de sign. 
 
 Joins heaven and earth, and mortal and divine; 
 
 Sees that no being any bliss can know, 335 
 
 But touches some above and some below; 
 
 Learns from this union of the rising whole. 
 
 The first, last purpose of the human soul; 
 
 And knows where faith, law, morals, all began. 
 
 All end, — in love of God and love of man. 340 
 
 For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal, 
 
 And opens still, and opens on his soul; 
 
 Till lengthened on to faith, and unconfined. 
 
 It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind. 
 
 He sees why Natim plants in man alone, 345 
 
 Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown: 
 
 (Nature, whose dictates to no other kind 
 
 Are given in vain, but what they seek they find;) 
 
 Wise is her present: she connects in this 
 
 325. And where no wants are, no wishes can remain. 
 
 326. To wish more virtue is the subject of the verb is, and to gain supplies 
 a nominative after it. 
 
 328. Which he who but feels can taste, which he who but thinks can know. 
 
 331. He is a slave to no sect, who takes no private road. 
 
 333, 334. Who pursues that chain which links the immense design — which 
 joins, etc. 
 
 336. Except a bliss which touches some things (or perhaps beings) above 
 and some below. 
 
 337. He is a slave to no sect, who learns, etc. 
 
 347. Nature is in apposition with nature in the 345th line. 
 
 349. Wise is her present, i.e., her gift. 
 
ESSAY ON MAN. 
 
 63 
 
 His greatest virtue with his greatest bliss; 
 
 At once his own bright prospect to be blest, 
 
 And strongest motive to assist the rest. \ 
 
 Self-love, tlms push^ to soci^Jbo divine, \ 
 Gives thee to make thy neighbor’s blessing thiie| 
 
 Is this to(^little for the boundless heart ? \ [ i 
 
 Extend it, let thy enemies have part: 
 
 Grasp the whole worlds of reason, life, and seiise,' 
 In one close system of benevolence: ; 
 
 Happier as kinder, in whate’er degree, ^ 
 
 And height of bliss but height of charity. j 
 
 God loves from whole to parts: but human soub 
 Must rise from individual to the whole. 
 
 Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, 
 
 As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake; 
 
 The center moved, a circle straight succeeds. 
 Another still, and still another spreads; 
 
 Friend, parent, neighbor, first it will embrace; 
 
 His country next; and next all human race; 
 
 Wide and more wide, the o’erfio wings of the mind 
 Take every creature in, of every kind; 
 
 Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blest. 
 And Heaven beholds its image in his breast. 
 
 Come, then, my friend ! my genius ! come along, 
 0 master of the poet and the song ! 
 
 And, while the muse now stoops or now ascends, 
 
 To man’s low passions or their glorious ends. 
 
 350 
 
 355 
 
 360 
 
 365 
 
 370 
 
 375 
 
 351. It (i.e., her present, referring to hope and faith) is his own brij^ht 
 prospect to be blest. To be blest here supplies the place of the gerundial, or 
 substantive phrase, of being blest. 
 
 359. Be thou happier as thou art kinder, or thou wilt be happier as thou 
 art kinder, in whatever degree. Whatever is an indefinite pronoun agreeing 
 with degree. 
 
 365. The center being moved, etc. • 
 
 ^ 368. It will embrace his country next, etc. 
 
 369, 370. The overflowings of the mind take in every creature, etc. 
 
 375, 376. We frequently meet with instances in Pope and also in other writ- 
 ers, where two or more verbs and prepositions are used, having an alternate 
 relation: thus, And while the muse now stoops to man’s low passions, or 
 ascends to their glorious ends. 
 
64 
 
 ESSAY OK MAN. 
 
 380 
 
 385 
 
 390 
 
 Teach me, like thee, in various nature wise, 
 
 To fall with dignity, with temper rise; 
 
 Foned by thy converse, happily to steer 
 From grave to gay, from lively to severe: 
 
 Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease, 
 
 Intent to reason, or polite to please. 
 
 Oh ! vrhile along the stream of time thy name 
 Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame. 
 
 Say, shall my little bark attendant sail. 
 
 Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale ? 
 
 When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose. 
 
 Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes, 
 
 Shall then this verse to future age pretend 
 Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend ? 
 
 That, urged by thee, I turned the tuneful art 
 From sounds to things, from fancy to the hearty 
 / For Wit's false mirror held up Nature’s light; 
 
 // Showed erring pride, whatever is, is right; 
 
 / 2.That reason, passion, answer one great aim; 
 
 1 *5 That true self-love and social are the same; 
 
 \ i^That virtue only makes our bliss below; 
 
 And all our knowledge is, ourselves to know. 
 
 377, 378. Teach me. like thee (who art), wise in various natlire, to fall. 
 
 379. Perhaps it may be proper here to change tlie mood from the impera- 
 tive used in the preceding lines to the potential. May I be formed by thy 
 converse, etc. 
 
 381, 382. May I be correct with spirit— may I be eloquent with ease— may 1 
 be intent to i-eason or polite to please. 
 
 389. Pretend.— To stretch out before one, Latin pre. before, tendo, to 
 stretch 
 
 390. That thou wert, etc. 
 
 393, 394. That instead of wit’s false mirror, I held up nature’s light. That 
 I show’d to erring pride, that whatever is, is right. 
 
 391. Whatever is, is right.— This sentence occurs three times in these 
 Epistles, viz., in the last line of Epistle I., and in the 145th and 394th of Epis- 
 tle IV. A misunderstanding of the author’s plan, and the general scope of 
 his reasoning, has not unfrequently caused his supposed sentiments to be 
 severely reprobated, and himself to be harshly censured for scattering error 
 in the way of those who, by a lack of expei ience, might eagerly embrace it 
 for truth. If this were spoken of man, in reference to his Maker, it would 
 most assuredly deserve all the reprobation which the good and virtuous 
 could bestow lipon it; but a little attention to the plan of the work will show 
 that it is to be applied altogether to the dealings of God with man. After 
 staking out his ground, in the first section of the first Epistle, he avows it as 
 his sole object, “ To vindicate the ways of God to man.” 
 
 398. That to know ourselves is all our knowledge. 
 
 -395 
 

i